JP

From JP...thank you. It's beautiful. Check it out:

36

You

embrace this year.

Your numbers curve

gently like the tangerine coral

you mimic: soft, bendable, your

fingers touch surface. You unfold this year.

This year you find yourself at home in tropical

seas and sway to jazz beats in cool dark rooms.

Say freedom. No, no: scream Freedom! Inhale

the last 35 years. Remember: all the words you wrote.

The memories carved under skin. Your fleshy rind holds

names of ex lovers, their faces, tears, even their voices.

That skin, those words, they sing, hum, whisper,

scream, pray, chant, sometimes they are silent.

Now exhale. Let those memories flow out.

Remember: there is enough room to collect

new ones. Ana, bend fingers.

Touch water, sand, stone

and especially skin.

Say Ashé.