Written by Karen Baumgart
if you noticed my frayed edges,
tied back neatly on that first day of Year 11,
you were kind enough not to say. it was
mostly boys in advanced math/physics/chem,
but we’d have chosen each other anyway,
in any universe. I remember
endless hours of homework, and that physics prac
we almost failed when we couldn’t stop laughing,
and playing the same songs on repeat,
but mostly, I remember
being unafraid to hang stars just out of reach,
deciding we’d top History (you) and English (me),
and cafeteria chats, elastic hours unspooling
over Diet Coke and chocolate cake as we
planned which boys we’d marry. I remember
when that eventually happened, we barely paused
to marvel at how we’d scooped up our dreams
like reckless handfuls of candy hearts.
I wonder if you knew then
what a gift it was, the space you held for me—
soft, like a favourite sweater?
and even now, I remember
how it saved me, in all the ways
I didn’t yet know I needed to be saved.
.
Karen Baumgart lives in Australia and adores beautiful quotes, pink things, cats, and chai lattes. She used to be an English teacher, and is quite certain that writing is, indeed, the best therapy. Instagram: @miss.cake.girl Bluesky: @cake-girl.bsky.social Twitter / X: @cake_girl__