when I was 9
the summer after fourth-grade
I moved far away
heartbroken to leave my best friend
We met, you know, when I was 3 and she was 4.
she hid in her car sobbing
while we packed the moving truck in my driveway
I rode away sobbing
kept sobbing every night of fifth-grade
that was almost 40 years ago
Would it make me seem younger if I said that was over 30 years ago?
38 years
between then and now
I moved back
we went to college together
she moved away
there have been visits
phone calls
FaceTimes
and today as I drove
14 minutes from my house
to help unpack her moving truck
here
Just 14 minutes from my house.
I wondered two things
Would it help if I could tell 9 year-old me it’s going to be okay – What’s a
few decades and miles between old friends. Also be patient.
and
hear me out here
What is it that my future self wants to tell my today self will be okay?

Where does your writing come from?

Sometimes
I catch a line
a phrase
something someone
says
or sometimes some
rhymes
sometimes
my fingers
wiggle
Wiggle?
Do real writers use words like wiggle?
Would you prefer
joggle
squirm
jiggle?
My fingers want to
write
so they move
hopping
hoping a keyboard materializes
by the time my brain realizes
how to possibly process
what made me laugh
or cry or
most
maybe most likely
made me angry
one day I’ll write about the breeze that
floats through the trees in my backyard
makes you believe those people who talk to trees
I’ll find a way to describe the bird songs so
you hear them
the way they interrupt each other
just in time
so the short quick repeating
chirp chirp chirp chirps don’t act like an alarm
but a melody
until then
I’ll just notice things,
my fingers will
joggle
I’ll write the words when
I can catch them.