A perfect moment

By Eden Cain

You sit in the backseat of a tiny car

All elbows and knees 

Squished together far too closely

the October cold taps sharply on the window

as autumn whips by 

The sound of your friends laughter 

Carries over the music

It’s a perfect moment, one you wish you could freeze

And you want to tell them that you love them

But none of the right words will come 

You know they know

But you love them like you love watching a sunset crack open the sky 

Like the feeling of the wind pinching your cheeks rosey.

You love them like you love seeing how the pavement sparkles with frost in the morning 

Like the sound of rainfall against a window 

But you can’t say that 

Not here 

Not in this perfect moment 

In this tiny car 

Instead you’ll make fun of how we wore white trainers to a pumpkin patch 

when we finally shuffle free from the back seat

We slide through mud 

Fighting for the best one

Laughing when someone falls 

And you look at their faces 

Cast gold in the fading autumn sun

And realise you need to say nothing 

Because you love them like you love this perfect moment

Frozen hands clutching prized pumpkins, faces split wide by grins

And oh how truly you’ll feel, that this is more than enough 

Illustration by Verity Laycock