A girl loves a girl like a child’s hand loves mud.

A girl loves a girl and that girl loves her back. Like there just might be no tomorrow. Like an adjective loves to modify a noun. Like that noun loves to be varied and bettered.

A girl loves a girl and certain societies reject that notion.

A girl loves a girl and she must explain this love to her parents, which she would not have to do if she loved a boy. It would be, well, expected. When she tells her parents, who are severed and not in love with one another, one is delighted by this notion and one is not.

Because a girl loves a girl.

A girl loves a girl and kisses her on her soft lips, on a swing in the forest at night.

Their first kiss. The girl’s first kiss. Because a girl loves a girl.

A girl loves a girl and together their life is like a faultless circle and together they live in a forest where the trees grow tall and robust and skyward.

A girl loves a girl.

The forest is partially shaded and things grow. Things grow because a girl loves a girl and she loves the flowers and the animals and the leaves. They. They love the flowers and the animals and the leaves. They equals the two girls. The partial shade lets in the sun, makes shadows. A girl loves a girl and together they love the shadows and they see different girls who love each one another, who are like them, who look like them and are shaped like them.

A girl loves a girl and she thinks of both parents. One parent lives in the forest, understands the forest, grows in the forest, sees the shadows of the girl who loves a girl.

One parent does not live in the forest. Does not understand the forest. Does not grow in the forest. Does not see shadows.

Because a girl loves a girl.

A girl loves a girl and they hold hands and together they walk out of the forest into society where the other parent lives. There are no trees in this society. There is no shade. There are no shadows, no sunlight, no girls like them, no girls shaped like them. There are stares in this society.

The sky in this society is soiled bath water.

The other parent speaks to the girl: Why would a girl love a girl?

Exactly, the girl says squeezing her girl’s hand, turning and smiling at her girl. Exactly! That’s my exactly point because I am a girl and I love this girl! She squeezes her girl’s hand, exactly the way the shadows do in the forest.

To this announcement, the forest-dwelling parent applauds like slow deliberate firecrackers, each one exploding in celebration and from his view at the edge of the forest smiles wide as a galaxy and says to himself My girl loves!