People of my life, your presents are poetry. Thank you for

• a watermelon
• a note where you said something holy in the middle of other beautiful things about our friendship
• a note where you wrote like you were in the middle of the oregon trail
• a blog post in my honor
• a volume of collected camus
• that bottle of champagne, and that one too!
• a bag of coffee beans
• a something that looked like a cigarette but didn’t have tobacco in it
• a kerchief you embroidered with words i should carry around
• my dream sunglasses in a handmade case
• a chocolate cake brought to me while i was tutoring
• whimsical matchbooks
• a book on edible plants (with pictures!)
• musics & musics & musics on compact disc
• “the enourmous room” by ee cummings
• a feather hairclip
• a funfetti cake with funfetti icing and lettered candles
• a birthday card made with magic markers
• four fancy chocolates
• a bouquet of red & yellow flowers
• two scientific pictures of succulents on nice paper
• a gold bicycle bell and a mended tire
• a green leather journal
• photographs of places we’ve walked together
• three cadbury creme eggs
• a collaborative card with a drawing of two different types of birds (one that eats my cake and one that reminds me i am old)
• three dozen kumquats in a taco bell bag
• purple jewelry
• a poem you wrote for me while driving & a picture of many species of cats that a friend gave you when she left you
• a record by the band
• two notebooks the shape of the poems i write
• herbs de provence in bulk
• paisley stationery with many purples
• a birthday song &

your presences your presences your presences…!

i am rich with them, in them.