*

this is for you,
it feels like forever ago.

there are things moving quickly overhead
i think they are clouds.
it is easy to think a gunshot is a bottle rocket,
or a car misfiring it is easy to think
that everything is a threat and that
there is nothing we don’t understand
there is no great mystery here
or else we’d all have magnifying glasses
and special hats.

i wanted very badly to swing something above my head
i did eighteen push-ups
i ate an orange popsicle
i took out the chicken
i told myself several jokes
that i will never repeat.