I wonder who wrote their initials here
What were they thinking of as they absentmindedly dotted the i
and curled the final sweep of the e upwards
Was this the same person
who created the little garden of daisies on the desk in my English room?
Or maybe the curious mind who asked me who I was on the sandy surface of my physics desk
I find comfort in the wandering minds of others
Their notes are addressed to no one
but I like to think they're for me.

When she was born she had no blood
fresh seawater flowed through her veins
and her eyes were as ever changing as the oceans
And so they named her Galene
after the Greek goddess of calm seas.

She lived up to her name
Calmly wandering through life
looking at and through everyone
with her whirlpool eyes
Seemingly curious
But she never stopped to probe
because she already knew everything.

We knew she did not belong here
with her sandy hair tumbling down her back
and her soft voice
and her bare feet

And so no one was surprised
on a trip to the beach
when she walked straight into the waves
disappearing beneath the surface
and did not drift back up

When my mother used to smoke cigarettes
we'd hide her carton of slim white smokes
and tape pictures of cancerous lungs all over the house
with dark frowning faces scribbled onto them
and my father, sister and I would laugh for hours until she found them and laughed with us
A decade after she quit
and we still laugh our ***** off at the memory
of those angry, angry lungs
and it just goes to show that sometimes
the things that seem horrible at the time
make for the best memories

It burned my mouth
when I sipped my mother's bourbon
It seared my throat
when I tried my father's cigar
But if the opportunity arises
I'll do both again
because a day will come when they will not be there
to gauge my reaction
and find amusement in my wrinkled nose
and in my quick exhale
And likely
one day I won't have these reactions at all