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the college kids into it,
letting all us younger ones
climb Cowee Bald and camp
out on the tower where the bears
and such would leave us be,
and then I talked her out of
sleeping in the one good bag
among us, saying at the corner
I'd be colder, playing on her
sympathy and maybe just the
slightest crush, though she
was slightly older, like a sister,
someone Dad (who wasn't there)
spent too much time with, maybe,
that's what mumbles I had heard
a few times thought, at any rate.
It didn't matter then, I didn't know,
and didn't want to know, if it was
true about her or the others,
all I knew was that I wanted
to be warm, and she agreed but
couldn't sleep for shivering and
sometime just before the sun
came up above the trees she
whispered could she squeeze inside
the bag beside me, scaring me
to death. Surprisingly, the thought
was pleasing, too, for just a second
till I realized the other guys would tease me
without mercy as all guys of certain ages do.
I said that I was getting up,
that she could have the sleeping bag
in all its glory for herself, a little edgier
than planned to hide the fear and
even more, the part I'd liked.
She didn't look that disappointed
as she snuggled in, but then again,
she'd been awake and cold for hours.
She may have been.
I never thought to ask.
(c)Ellen Gillette, 2015
