Thank you so much for the memories,
those moments of pleasure-pain
when I meet
someone with your name
or think in the split-second before reality sets in
that I saw you walking towards me.

Thank you for the little trinkets
that I'll pack away in moving boxes
and
marvel anew when they surface,
all the way across the continent.

Thank you, all of you, my friends
and family -
in soul, if not in blood.

You knew me and I knew you,
and it was fantastic.
We sat together rolling dice,
or showing each other songs that made us think, "I thought of you!",
or just talking,
or eating,
like the wonderful,
mad,
insane human beings we all are.

I could never have asked for anything better.