Natalie Schriefer
When the streetlights flashed on,
sky bruising with twilight,
my brother and I took turns
launching a tennis ball into the air,
high as we could. That was when
the bats swooped in, investigating,
flitting away before the ball
bounced down. Crickets chirped
and we laughed, my brother and I,
the two of us together, as we threw
the ball again and again, bats careening
and squeaking, the world simple
and alive, blooming between us,
the power wire a thin black line
against the aching lilac sky.
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