Is your mother still working at the same place she was back then?

My fingers still dance the way they did when we were middle schoolers braiding each

other's hair. I still can't get my hair to part the way I want it to. It still splits just off-center in the

front and I still struggle to care what the back looks like.

I am forever changed by the special way you adorn the dull. Since you showed me what hot

sauce and lime does for a cup of instant noodles--my tastes have never been

the same.

Summer sausage and salami,

Sleepovers and silly fun!

Yesterday and tomorrow: full of promise and hope that we will see each other soon. We exist

alongside one another in all realms of time, impermanently permanent, contingent on our being.

Time will never be enough to erase this fact.

Will I see you tomorrow?

Can you promise me yesterday?

Only so much eye contact can come from these sockets. They dart and bolt and divert and bury

themselves in the security of removal. You teach me what a great thing it is to connect with

someone in the ways that remain unspoken.

Until only recently, I thought I would have to let these things go.

So many memories, so many lessons, so many laughs. Life happens and people grow apart.

Often unwillingly, paths of love lost diverge and twist and bend and turn and transform and

blossom and wither and emerge again. It’s a beautiful thing to grow, a less beautiful thing to

remember what cost this begs.

My heartstrings still tease one another when I think about growing up. Life happens and people

grow apart, but you will never leave these chambers of loving. We bled together, cried together,

laughed, danced, slept, partied, mourned, celebrated. It’s hard to change the way life happens to

people when they grow and grow apart. It’s even harder to forget.

Until only recently.

Can we meet for coffee, soon?

How can I ever forget you?