Yes, I'm late, it's lame. I know you've just been hitting refresh over and over since Friday morning, haven't you?

I recently sent a package to my sister, who is in jail. She has developed an interest in origami. I guess inmates in county jail don't have much to occupy their time...contrary to what I'd imagined, they aren't stamping out license plates, or swirling industrial-sized loads of laundry in vats full of blinding lye. They just kinda hang out and entertain themselves with whatever they can get their hands on (my sister, for example, carved a set of chess pieces from soap!).

So anyway, she wants origami paper, but you can't send stationery or blank sheets. So I took five sheets of the colored squares and wrote a few lines on the white backside of each one.

1.
I wanted to tell you
about a story I read

2.
This girl made
1,000
origami cranes

3.
so that her
wish
would come true

4.
(she had cancer
and her wish
was to live)

5.
you only have
enough for five
but it's a start

And here's a really shitty thing I had in my gmail "drafts" folder that I can't take the time to make good because I have to pack to go to Santa Barbara tomorrow. I'm aware that these poems hardly even merit being called that, and are probably rife with spelling errors, but it is important to me to see this damn 30 poem thing through. That's more the goal than anything else.

Attached

He wants promises
he wants contracts
and signatures
He wants you
like an employee
he can review
and fire at will

So consider
your answer
carefully
and remember
it's not just
a figure of speech
when he asks you
to be His

And the third one (a brand new first draft) for Monday, since I probably won't be back 'til late.

A Lovely Time in Chinatown

Before you left
to make your mark
in a country
dry and distant
we had lunch
in Chinatown.

Shrimp dumplings
pork buns
egg custard tarts.

Then we walked to the pond
and watched the turtles
do a strange mating dance.
The much smaller male
flitted his feet
over the eyelids of the female.
She backed away
he gave chase
and repeated.
Endlessly.

I knew you'd be leaving
although I wasn't sure when.
It was that day in Chinatown
I decided
to stop backing away.

I wish we'd gone there
sooner.