Right now it’s hot coffee and cloudy skies and palm trees that wave in the wind like skinny junior high school me doing the snake to Nasty Boys Don’t Mean a Thing when nasty boys meant everything and it’s this warm knit hat over these thin silvering hairs over jumbled memories of home and holidays and 5 million and counting gone and me here alive and you here too alive and it’s unfathomable and still it’s real and it’s right now and it’s the skinny National Guardsboy doing some new snake laughing with friends before walking over and pricking me with unexpected tenderness through the car window and then waiting 15 minutes just to make sure I’m okay and it’s right now and I’m okay I’m here still alive and you’re here too still alive right now giving thanks alive giving thanks alive giving thanks alive.
personal essay
