we're going to hang out by Kate LaDew

for the first time in a long time

and it rains

of course it rains

as we sit under the umbrellas of the coffee shop

legs tucked criss-cross apple sauce

on damp wooden benches

I say, did you know, there’s the same amount of water

on earth now as when the dinosaurs were here?

you don’t say anything, but I can see inside you

you’re imagining triceratops in aviator shades

velociraptors rocking chuck taylors,

brontosauruses with scarves wrapped around and around

did you know they’re real? I say

and you look at me,

brontosauruses, they’re real, they did exist

they used to think, I lean forward, drops of rain ghosting past my eyelashes,

they were a mistake, just more apatosauruses,

but it’s not true, they’re real,

I touch my fingertips to the inside of your wrist, press, soft,

as real as you or me

your eyes sweep down, and our pulses sync

I’m glad, you say, a smile in your voice

and we look out at all of the everything

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Kate LaDew (she/her) is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a BA in Studio Art. She lives in Graham, NC with her cats, Charlie Chaplin and Janis Joplin.