Letter to Serena

 I hope you are feeling the love, my sister. It’s all around you. 

The last time I wrote you, I did so over a couple of weeks, kind of how I write many of my poems. Like the poems, at some point I have to say that enough is enough and send it out to the universe.

In the case of the letter, I delivered it to the local post office, since mailboxes have gone the way of pay phones. When I got home, the daily mail had been delivered and there was the card from you, with the delightful story of my old business card falling out of the book you bought. I told Barbara and a few friends and poets about it, then  headed out for an errand, which changed in mid-stream for no reason at all. At a grocery store I was wearing a mask because COVID and it was a gift with “Badgers” on it, my favorite sports team from Wisconsin. A younger man (40’s) in the store asked if I was from Wisconsin, which led to an enjoyable discussion and we discovered that he had grown up very near my childhood home. Moreover, as we talked names, we found many other connections, friends of his father being friends of mine. It was wonderful and I decided to tell him the story of you finding my business card in a used book. He loved it. I still had not done my original errand but there was a Trader Joe’s nearby that I rarely go to because parking is a hassle, but swung by just as a spot near the front door opened up, so I took it as a sign to go in. The store was packed but strangely, no one was at any of the checkout counters, except five bored but eager clerks. Having my choice, I picked the middle path, addressed the young clerk by name, and she too asked me about my Badgers mask. I decided to tell her the story of the business card and the man at the previous grocery, but her boss was sort of glaring. I told the boss to listen in, it was a great story of the daily miracles one might encounter, and she softened. I relayed my story, only to learn that the clerk was new to San Diego and had grown up less than a mile from my childhood home. What fun !  And all of this because I think lovingly of you and because you take the time to communicate with me.