animal crossing fireworks 

it's november & the world is tired
of its mistakes. my brother & i 
talk on the phone about 
going to sleep for a whole year
to see where that arrives us.
he's just bought tea cups. he sets 
the vessels in a line on the windowsill.
soon we will both be home for thanksgiving 
where we will pass the some worries
back & forth & call that siblinghood. 
i am laying on my back 
on the matted lavender carpet 
trying to keep talking to him
while i video game dream 
about animal crossing. 
my sandwich-thick blue DS. 
it's dim glow in the dark 
of my childhood bedroom. shutting
the music off. silent miniature town. 
shake a tree for peaches.
a mouthful of fish. 
butterfly glinting in a jar
on my desk. nothing dies 
inside a digital. i go
into the game settings & change 
that early winter night 
to july 4th. i move the time ahead too.
wake up in a refreshed town. 
ready for fireworks. cross my legs.
wish for futures full
of stone & river. the fireworks
red & yellow glow. a promise
of malleable time. i can tell myself
soon it will be july & the air
will notice me again. 
i ask my brother how long
winter will be & he lists 
the months. sits at his desk.
glances out his own slightly fogged window.
without me, my town is alive.
my town is august & june &
morning in april. my town is
harvesting tulips. oribiting
a may pole. on my last walk of the night
i check on the stars like you might check
on a sibling. 
they are there.