Girlhood

Celina Bagchi '24

I have a deep innate love for

Petrichor and long walks on forested trails, for

The sound of your laughter in the morning and the smell of ground coffee beans, for

My lipstick stain on the side of your Diet Coke can, for

Neat handwriting that gets messier when you get excited, for

Stumbling out of fishnets at three in the morning after too much Aperol, for

The smell of rain on the pavement and the color of August trees, for

Counting freckles on your skin like stars in a pale sky, for

This fleeting feeling of youth, of girlhood, for

Black lacquered nails tangled in messy dark hair and

Warm almond honey eyes that only search for me

In every room they enter

I am nothing more than words falling from 

Chapped lips that bear your kiss and someone else’s lipstick; I’m made of

Songs no one knows the words to anymore and magazine clippings from days long past; I see

Everything I could ever want in the way you smile and hear

Forever in the way you call my name; I’m

In love with strangers and all of my friends but mostly

I’m in love with you

And you will never know it, because you will always be

A dream on the inside of my eyelids, dancing in the

Ballroom of my mind.