it has a powerful wave to it like your favorite songs; makes you move your hips the wave can swell up from any source, arise in any medium if you get caught in the thicket of false poetry, pull yourself back out like a thorn or a sliver, and return to idly running your hands over the smooth wood the ending doesn’t have to echo the beginning; not every path is circular i know about the whole “becoming the man i’ve wanted” thing. i’m more interested in becoming the man the man i’ve wanted would want and what does he want? is it muscles, an absence of fat, denial of gravity? or does he want me to be the one who looks up and smiles at him in the street instead of glancing away, pretending not to be scared or amused or condescending? would he be ok if i started out by walking down the street being visible? we could always go to the gym together later or something, take a class, work on the whole muscles and gravity thing. that comes later, though. first let’s just share a little gratitude for the splash of color spilling out of a cut-open cardboard case of bags of El Rey chips up above the sink in the back room visible from the counter in the cafe where i’m buying him a coffee and a muffin in any season when you need a place to be, surrounded by strangers telling each other normal, boring, powerful stories of how they used to be alone and how it’s different now Making me do your work is not my job. it’s your job. I can try to help you with your job, *offer support,* but I can’t do it for you and I wouldn’t even if I could. #pdp And how do I offer support? However the moment requires, but one way is by capitalizing on my professional credentials and position to find a way to get the good stuff in front of you. To fight the system from inside the system. Oh, that’s a romantic notion. But why not? Kids and teachers are known for being romantic; let’s swim in the element we’re submerged in together. epithalamium a poem is a compressed story? can you really expect an instrument to become an extension of your body if you never took the time to learn to inhabit your body and play it like an instrument from the inside?