How lovely to see your face on that Shutterstock card

And not just of you, but of your husband and your four kids too

This is hard, a misshapen pill of sorts

You remember me from high school, always on the basketball courts

Hair a mess and in my shorts

Twenty years caught us both

We found our husbands and said our oaths

You moved to Texas

But our semi-annual text messages and mail connect us

You’ve asked over the years

You know I could never face my fears

In each Christmas photo, your family grew – it still does

As the refrigerator where it hangs starts to rust

I can never see myself with a 10-year-old

I couldn’t stay in the pew

At your wedding reception, I remember how your dad danced with you

And remember how high school was an experiment

We stumbled through chemistry, PE, boys – all a mystery

Here in 2024 we are products, maybe still in the making

Our parents and teachers shaped us

But I’ve found myself thinking

I have to be outside

I’ve never been one for dresses and bows

Or for painted toes

But hand me some running shoes or a basketball

I know time marches on

I’ll be where the refrigerator light glows

Looking on, cheering

There’s no more time to stall

I know it’s hard hearing

I’m not in your steps

Things look different in reality from what we talked about on that bus when we were 16

I’m happy here on the coast

Just two miles from those basketball courts

I never straighten my hair

It’s odd how dreams and plans morph

How many times have you died

I think about that as I stand in the refrigerator’s glow, just before I slip outside

Without a care

Will our paths converge again

In Texas, Virginia, or Michigan

At a nursing home? In the end?