by Eleanor Dillon-Reams

(A how-to in 7 steps)

1. Kiss
   freely and often-ly
   not just your lovers
   but your friends
   on the lips
   stop time
   hold hands
   and cuddle so tight your hearts beat
   to the same beat
   
   
2. Let your ageing dad beat
   you in a race,
   mirror the look
   on his ecstatic winning face –
   get to know the little boy
   that still resides inside
   
   
3. Sunshine;
   worship and roll in sunshine
   frequently,
   vitamin D and sun-kissed skin
   blossoming in freckles
   are integral for days 1–99
   
   
4. For such hot days as these –
   cold beers
   big smiles
   dancing bodies,
   grinning thighs,
   stomp on the grass
   in your wellies seeped
   in mud and lust and glitter and
   dust off your worried work selves,
   climb out off the shelves of inside
   and hold your mouth open wide
   gawping at the beauty of outside.
   
   Take it all in darling.
   
   
5. Sunrise prescribed for hopeless days
   Sunsets for settling stays at
   the chapter’s ending,
   hold on before the next one starts
   
   
6. Farts are funny.
   
   Your five-year-old self knew best.
   
   
7. Peanut Butter.
   Peanut Butter and Marmite,
   Peanut Butter and Jam,
   above all things Peanut Butter.

Eleanor Dillon-Reams | @Elle_D_Reams
Eleanor is a writer, actor, and poet. Originally from Brighton, she has been living in London since she was 18 and has been writing poetry and spoken word for the last four years.