i’m grateful

(June 2023. Daopoem between me and Billy reminscing on things we’re grateful for from our shared friendship, mostly about breaking down in Birmingham and Christmas memories growing up in Swansea. The last few stanzas are by far the strongest. Don’t know where this was written.)

i’m grateful for a friendship of abundance
like a family feast of fried bojangles

I’m grateful for drastic crisis
Like a blown serpentine belt

i’m grateful for black men in birmingham
and mechanics who treat you like a friend

I’m grateful for the income tax of youth
And defense mechanisms passed on by mother

i’m grateful for chewy rolo’s pressed on
pretzels drop’d at my door on christmas

I’m grateful for the reflected splendor (in my eye)
A blizzard lactates into mid-day’s effulgence

i’m grateful for winters when the world
stopped for snow, & how for a well-layered
child every path in soft white was the first

Hug

of

this

step