some of my dad
we hugged and he said
“you’re getting so big”
at first I thought it was a fat jab
a not uncommon topic there
but then he looked at the top of my head
and I realized he meant “all grown up”
he’d already been forgetting things:
words, events, people’s names, movies he’d seen
but everybody forgets those things
from time to time
this time he looked at a thing
(a person … ME)
and saw something else
someone else, somewhen else
that’s when I knew
nothing would ever be the same again
/ / /
29 May 2026
Charlottesville VA
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