CCW Finalist, Poetry

Dragging Dusk Behind Them

Three girls
made time wait for them
today
as they walked along
dragging the dusk slowly behind them
like a toy dog on a string.
They walked oblivious to everything
but the now,
stopping casually
to crush sprigs of lavender in their hands
so as to smell them all the better in the air.
They stopped to chat and giggle over some boy,
over their blossoming bosoms,
over their legs shaved smooth for the first time.
They stretched the dusk
and kept the night at bay.

Maria Ercilla