Tribal Sleepover

[TheDrivenSnow]

Tribal Sleepover

For any of us

Who struggle with fuss,

Who long for long nights long ago,

When laughter was king,

Bunk beds just the thing

For celebrating, democratising

Slumber and napping and so

Much learning and yearning

And schoolgirl churning,

No road where we couldn’t go.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Pushing back sleep, no counting sheep,

We wanted it all in one night!

Tights, bites, trite pillow-fights;

Such impatience! It just wouldn’t keep!

Taut, sticky fists; cheese twists, midnight trysts,

Ambitious to-do lists…

We’d flourish and sweep, then heap

Experimental snowballs; crème de menthe calls!

The greener the better to match

Our faces at dawn

When we, all forlorn,

Forced yet another one down the hatch!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

There was always one

More practical than some

Who had it all in hand;

Quashed inevitable quibbles,

Hasty, tasty those nibbles,

Emblematic of truce and pact and band.

So simple the ritual,

Some might say spiritual;

And yet… and yet… and yet…

We shied away from ritual habitual,

Terror – it did us beset;

For we sensed then as we now know

Each tangle, each tumble,

Each night a-rumble

Was special and sacred and whole.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Older now, what wouldn’t we do

For another night, a crew,

Companions of whom we’re fond?

Finding our berth, our bunk,

Our heady, our chunk

Of special and sacred, our bond.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Familiar gazing and blazing

And midnight grazing,

Tucked away in the starry chill;

The haste that we packed

Into moments of waste

Long ago lies waiting still.

And we know now that we knew then

Our promise we would fulfil;

We would find a way to furnish our den;

Our page, it would meet its quill;

We would walk this trail and thrill.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

This clan is new to us;

Its faces are glorious,

Its words, its tune, its song

Fresh to ears humming

Lines that we’re strumming,

That tell us that we belong.

Though virtual our sleepover,

Remote our makeover,

We will claim absolution lifelong.

Each promise we braid

Into tresses of jade

Is a pledge we commit to our throng.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

There are moments in time

When mirrors confuse us

With lines and hair silvery,

When the petulant mime

Of complex arrangements

Rebuts all but simplicity.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Growing us up is a decision we ponder

In moments that throb and chirp and chime.

And if there are moments of which we’re fonder,

That we choose to squander,

Know that squandering’s not a crime.

Know that growing us up is ours as we wander,

As here and there we climb,

And though that wander may take us out yonder,

Know that there’s plenty of time.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

There was always plenty of time.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I did enjoy writing this verse!

Nostalgia is my middle name. Or ought to be.

Our childhood and adolescence are our foundation and I look back upon mine with huge fondness, tenderness, gratitude and something approaching reverence.

I know not everyone is as fortunate - and that saddens me.

I hope these lines stir something deep inside the reader and bring joy.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I tried to attach an audio version of this verse, but failed miserably!

I'm SO not tech-centric!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡