Remember 14?

.
At 14
.
they coaxed me into the July sun
and nibbled on my scrawny fingers
bleating knowingly over my hands
.
later, on crunchy spring mornings
I embraced their half-frozen lambs
intervening with the sweet foremilk
.
nearly twenty years later I was repaid
seven months living on intravenous fluid
until we coaxed Julia into the spring sun
.
on April 14th I could eat again
these hands knowing now