Day 1 of my 55th year

and I’m spending

a honey-nut

butter-suckle

vegan ice cream

summer day

melting slowly into the seat

of a rail replacement bus service

heading home without you

again.

Reading the Joan Didion

you bought me as a birthday gift.

Janet sings ‘Together Again’

from the driver’s radio

just like that long summer of ‘97

when you left me for the first time

and Jenny lost her Dad

and she and I

played it on repeat

sang grief karaoke