Expectations can be dangerous
Friends could let you down
Especially those you love
Thinking true friends
Would do more

Potted plant?
Tuna casserole?
Mailbox sympathy?
Telephone empathy?
Requiem recognition?

Do I lower expectations?
Expect less of them?
Stiffen my resolve?
Grieve for relief
On my own?

Should I stay or should I go?
Just get it on up?
Or keep it down low?
Pick up the pace?
Or chill it to slow?
Do what needs doing?
Does it really though?

What will I do?
I’ll let you know.

Last first day teaching
Carrying a grief backpack
The show did go on

Emasculation, no
*******; needing
Ministration: handy
*******
Mitigation
Yah, bruh
Handy dandy
Some vacation
A friction revelation
Whao!

I yam not only orangey
I’m awesomely tightltey whitley
And mostly so correctly

There’s no dirt in my smirk
I believe I’m totally rightly
And you? Are you native bornly?

I was bussed here
And you are from where?
What? Wall? We’re here wrongly?

I live shamelessly
While guilelessly
I know what I did
And did not do

I ask for forgiveness
When necessary
And forge through
The rest of it

Learn from the past
Shape the future
Our presence is present
Make the most of it

These days I cry every day
Extraordinary light in the kitchen
A certain chord progression
The passing of Mary Oliver

Even in loss we gain
Emotional resilience
Even as we surrender
To the beauty of day to day