"Theories" – 5/4/20

sometimes when I look at a photo of you
and remember how you first began
expressing concern for my well-being

across a chasm much wider than the one
we inhabit as gracefully as possible nowadays
I summon concurrently memories of you

at an art gallery where I was performing, as a guest
you the gracious host of a celebratory toast
to artistry, humanity, creativity, and a kind of family

I can picture your hair (that I'll always argue skews red)
and your height and your beautiful, glowing countenance
more distinctly than I would expect in light of the reality

that you were someone I deemed ironically to be
a little too perfect – or at least cool – for me
your warm smile akin to first-day-at-school friendship

since then you have become the opposite of adolescent luck
I feel irrefutably that we have both earned this good fortune
and when I finally clasp your fingers heartbeats in hamsas

I will sigh a relief so profound that fear itself will go deaf
anxiousness blind you have asked me multiple times
in recent days if it is just you so for that darling, I apologize

'you must know' is a phrase synonymous now with the skies
something as evident as the inevitable unfolding of a sunrise
May you likewise know that hope's our canopy, crystallized