i am awakened
at seven past two
a.m. by a loud
happy birthday
song.

i can’t quite recall
your face. it’s sharp,
but all the features are now
blurry and
i try to recollect
them, but it’s
useless.

when I wake up
it’s still dark outside
and I hear the
poems flutter.
they fly around
like moths blinded by the light,
bump into walls,
can’t find their way out.

in 2004
she wrote
K.I.T.
and the phone number
in my yearbook
as if digits last longer.

i put a teabag into the orange cup.
black tea,
it smells of peach and ginger.
i pour hot water over it,
add sugar –
one spoonful, two spoons, three.
a lot of sugar.
no milk, no lemon,
just the way she likes it.

it was Easter –
my second time at the big apple.
my father took me to see the twins.