I know how much you enjoy watching the stars—
how you imagine their sparkle, not the golden color,
and how you’ll gnash your teeth through cooked meat
but won’t touch flesh raw, you tend to leave behind the
humane in things and keep the after-thoughts. Yes,

I could repeat, tell you your three all-time favorite bands
if I ever fully remembered, but I like you exasperatedly
sighing and then sharing which artists make the top three,
never narrowing it down. There is a timeline to you I cannot
quite ever get the order of but the beat of the wind & whir

of the city buses pick up when I am around you. You already
know what section of the bookstores I go to first and I know
I can sense your soul before I hear your voice call out. There’s
an aura of synth beats and orange light around you, just the way
you like it. By the way, you were right, it’s the “Self-Help”section.