letter home

I wish I could call you and thank you for the yummy turkey and green bean casserole. I caught a bad cold so my voice is compromised. Hope you had a safe trip home and I miss you. If I'm well enough I plan to go see the family in Tahoe this weekend as Xmas falls on my day off. The last 3 months have been the hardest yet most exciting time in the past 5 years what with interviews and licensing demands and writing my book and training for my ultrarun in March. I'm taking this moment of rest to breathe (with inhalers 2 help!) and appreciate all that I'm trying to accomplish. None of it would have been possible without your help so I thank you. Love. K

another loss -iv

i borrowed your bike because mine was already locked up in my future home, this cool and windless morning, and after passing through De Fremery Park,  i found my key under a stone and let myself into the ranch on Magnolia surrounded by high and gapless fence. after catching my breath, i switched out yours for mine, as my Motobecane was twice ten speed and yours BMX. i determined it too dangerous to travel slow through West Oakland at dawn. the lady of the house, an attorney corrupted by law, was dead asleep ina sheet ona couch in the living room. i held my new key close to my heart, and walked down the hall to see the project i had recently completed. two new coats of eggshell paint covered four walls, ready to receive the light and warm a heart or two. all the cat dander raised up in the disturbance, in my lungs now,  soon to wake me with fits of asthma overnight. once i would be lucky, with my dear Kali at my side in the cot, fourth of july, to help with pressure points and rifle through my many backpacks for my inhaler , to rescue me without breath.

pollen

State Capitol, California

Yellow dust was everywhere. you could find it in the unlikeliest of places. mixed with the oil threaded into the ball bearings. lining the cell walls inside your kidneys. speckling the setting white sun at the base of a nail bed. it was as though a star had exploded and now we all wore it on us. glitter was second to something finally, for the models all lined their eyelids with pollen. the loratadine that was dissolved into their sparkling water took care of any potential unfashionable reactions, in most cases. the photographs of course, came out spotted in development, even the most obsessive compulsive photographer could not capture every grain. pollinated-selfies thus turned a corner and trended on twitter, and were particularly cherished if the subject could deliver the exalted clearing of sinuses, instantaneously, on camera.