We were kids back then

Just kids at a campout

(We slept in a cabin)

Daddy made bacon in the morning

But another girl's dad did most of the cooking

The dads drank beer and sat around the fire

We had a bonfire for everyone

And her dad got a broken eagle feather

Because he forgot the sleeping bags

I got a feather for jumping off the ten-foot tower

Into the lake

Even though I stood up there for

I don't know how long

I want to say ten minutes

But I bet it was longer

Though it might have been shorter

Daddy was floating in the water below me

Urging me to

Just jump

And when we woke up in the morning

We ran out onto the hill

The pink clouds of sunrise still hung in the air

And we saw one that was a line at an angle

And another one flat

We called it god's paintbrush

Because it looked like a brush painting a lone pink streak

Across the morning