Collecting: To Brian and friends from Anna

My many memories of Brian - from second grade at St. Tims though nights of philosophizing over cheap beer at Dicks - have a common thread. Brian delighted in the details of life with genius. I hope this poem brings to mind some of the joyful details you shared with him.

Baby

did you ever remember

how we collected

gingko leaves

outside the first grade doors

They fell

those few precious days

and we gathered them

into yellow piles

mindful of their splendor

and the feel of the waxy surface on our fingers

We laid claim to those few

that delighted us

in some random way

capturing some detail

imperceptible

to those who did not look

Then we collected

over the years

just the details

and relished

the absurd and the looking

in the precious days

that we remembered

all we had to make

was just our yellow piles of leaves

So I collected some for you today

a new store in my neighborhood

with a stenciled sign

“TV repair and groceries”

a fat man with an empty

shopping cart

in the middle of traffic

oh and I learned

how to draw penguins

from a library book

Though we won’t be leafing

through them

long hours

over beers

I will share them with you still when I am

looking

or collecting

or remembering