chalk drawings

a little girl drew chalk stars on her driveway
and lettered the asphalt with clumsy curlicues

Welcome to my house!

This is my mommy and
this is my daddy
I love them very much.

we drove over her pastel dreams
thump
tire-tire
thump
tire-tire
and turning back
i could see the smears of fluorescent calcium
trailing after us
stardust in the dusk spring wind.

the wishes, still wreathing her driveway
don't matter at all to her

but even as they stretched on behind us
ribbons of chalk streaming down our tires
i could still see her
tracing her heart
onto the pavement
for us to see.

i only wish
she knew.