In these words exactly.

2023.

I woke up today and took a walk.
I soon found myself remembering everything about me
that wasn’t good enough
and begging god through tears if I could just.

Be.
Love.

In these words exactly.
Because I know under everything else we are all this.

And then the sunshine said yes.
And my rhythmic footfalls said yes.
And the warmth of where I was going when I got there said yes.
And then I sat down and adrienne even said yes.
In words that read like a love letter to the parts of us all
who forget sometimes we are a wave (and a particle of grace),
that I got to read over her shoulder,
that she may have penned in my home town.

And lauryn hill over the coffee shop speakers said yes.
And my lover texted me yes.
And the woman across from me who is actively reading pleasure activism,
and just looked up from her book to nod and smile at me reading mine said yes.
Like knowing members of a people who are all from where we all need each other.
And the avocado colored bread mixer the size of
my car that’s in the shop down the street said yes.
And the barista who smiled a true, fat, queer smile
so big under their mask that their perfect brown cheeks
crowded out their beautiful, bespectacled, brown eyes said yes.
And the man who kissed the woman
two times on the crest of her right cheekbone
before he jumped in their car and got to his appointment on time said yes.

And I don’t usually need so much evidence for the only thing that’s true,
but today, it didn’t hurt none, and didn’t seem to cost no more.

And I am made of gratitude that I knew how to hear it from all of you.