I wish I could turn and wander from these moments, to remember forever how it was before

with school hallways bustling with chatty energy, jostling bodies walking, the slamming of the metallic locker doors

the quiet of our writing, mid-way musings of pencil scratches on paper, digging into words, emerging towards something more

of recess, and lunchtime, of navigating friendship, of bus loop energy, of greetings, farewells, silent reading on the floor

I wish I could turn and wander from this moment, a return to the before