Summer

We were young and stupid
but we were also the smartest people
we knew.
That summer we left behind girlhood
in favor of this new and exciting
maturity, testing it out with
our suntanned bodies,
slick with the salt of the ocean.
We tried anything and everything
took anything, drank anything,
smoked anything.
We flirted with boys
we knew we'd never see again.
We dyed our hair,
wore too much makeup,
showed too much skin.
That summer, we took on the world
headfirst
and expected to win.
That summer, we learned more
about ourselves than we ever had before.
That summer was the turning point.