Solstice

There was a terrified kid in a tree
and circled below him were three others
and they were screaming they would kill
him when he finally fucking fell,
and they could reach.
They shared a cigarette they found
on some stone steps while they waited
for their chance to lose their shit.
A green caterpillar scaled slowly
up the gray bark of the tree,
until the final pull was taken
and the oldest put the ash out
on the worm. The heat tore
the whole thing clear in half,
and they couldn’t hear above the laughs,
the approach of roaring engines
from behind. Their fathers
flashed their dim headlights
and called them home for good
that night. The boy in the tree
just stayed where he was, and
watched as they all rode away
in the bed of a truck.