Necklace

Yeah, that necklace

With the deep, deep blue ceramic bead

"To represent the canal, or the sky, or the morning mist over the mountains

Or maybe your favorite camp toothbrush"

Well, my toothbrush is green.

The necklace from the camp on the canal

With the oyster beach and the barnacle rocks

Where the fairies dance and the otters sing

And the old man's beard grows so, so long

That all the birds make nests of it

That necklace

For the timid five year old who was too brave not to climb a mountain

For the eight year old who came twice in the same summer

For the eleven year old who thought maybe she was getting too busy

Too busy for courage

For adventure

For laughter

"But I'll come back," she promised

"Someday."

For the eighteen year old who did come back

And when they asked her "Do you remember?"

Was too shy to admit it

But who could forget?

That necklace

Some people keep theirs in boxes in the corners of their rooms so they won't ever lose them

B. wears hers whenever she's especially nostalgic

S. keeps hers on a hook by the door

So that when the house catches fire, the necklace will stay with her

I don't take mine off.

But ohhh dear, that necklace

Drops of another world

Of plastic, or ceramic, or marmot fur

Or maybe just magic

Marmot fur is for garlic pita and copper mines and snow

The light blue is for finding constellations in the sea

A pink for jellyfish

More blue for warm August days

Lavender for sheep jokes and dinosaur trees

Green for building a fire

Yellow one for bug bites

Sapphire for singing to seals

White for making dream catchers and tye dye

Magenta for singing about moose and alligators and Tuesdays

Another magenta, for fairy houses and friendly trolls

More magenta, for salal and trilliums

And white, white for scraping pots and clearing trails

For dehydrated marinara and egg salad pitas

For pocket rockets and bilge pumps

For wild woozies and spider webs

For mountain goats and polar bears

For counting the bees and chasing the clouds

For giants and sparrows and butterfly breaths

For starfish and cedars and banana slugs

For heroes and villains and pirate hunts

For alpine meadows and barnacle bays

For windsurfing

For discipline

For fairy dust

So I don't keep a camera, just a notebook and some thoughts

And soon enough the thoughts will run away

But even though the notes are smeared and wearing through in spots

I know for certain that necklace will stay