I will fully admit- keeping in touch with family is not my strong point.
Have I called you up lately just to talk and see how things are with you? Probably not.
Do I send postcards to people just to tell them I miss them? No.
Does that mean I don’t think about family every day?
Of course not.

A song that invokes a specific, vivid memory of playing video games with my brothers,
the smells- of dirt, of water, or blooming trees and flowers-
from the garden that instantly transport me to Griffith, IN,
a story on the radio about the military that reminds me of my cousins
who have (I think it’s fair to say)
transformed their lives into something I never foresaw.

Every day, these easily dismissible tidbits occur in the world,
causing realities to seep out of my consciousness,
without my expectations,
without my criticism,
without my default filters of daily living.
These things flow out of me and stay in focus beyond the perceived events,
through the passing time of hours, days, weeks, months, years,
as if they will live well beyond me.

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