June 2, 2026

things I was thinking about while thinking about you

If the tomato bugs will be back this year. How long it takes for a snake
to decompose. If I should keep my uncle’s college term papers.
If we need more pea gravel for that space around the deck. If I will ever read
Moby Dick. Or War and Peace. Who will win the Senate race, given
the latest fiascos. How to eat more vegetables. Which cholesterol reading
to trust. What to wear on Friday. Who will say yes to July. Beeswax.
An oil change appointment. Dermatology. Whether it will rain later.
That summer I wrote letters to Jamie through the inter-camp mail.
The reason the mattress top keeps slipping. The light blue shoes
my mother gave me. That plastic box where the batteries live.
The French word for “roof.” Anna’s photo from the bike trip. Base-jumping
videos from Moab. The steak dinner in Grand Junction in 2008.
An F chord followed by A-minor. A near-empty jar of honey.
Missing the sunrise this morning. My phone number from childhood.
The birds in the nest under the eaves. Listening to you count them
as we stood in the kitchen and you peered through binoculars:
One, two, three, four, five.