here, a chance
to make up for lost time. here’s to
the eighteenth birthdays
and the graduations we never got; though
we were separated by oceans
our losses learned how to swim.
so i write for you an arrival day
where i meet you at the international arrivals terminal.
as we ride north to the life i’ve
built from leaving, our voices crystallize
to form home. outside, there is snow.
you ask me how i survive winter and i tell you
i learned to conjure up warmth. i dared
to imagine a christmas with all my closest ones
and now we are here. i spoke it into existence.
i breathed into being the bridging of our worlds.
you could say i manifested it.
we arrive at my place. my parents greet you and me,
and together we eat our way
through hours of kwento. you and wendii and i
fall asleep in my room that night,
ready to wake up and explore
the other side of the world.