you would have been twenty six
really we should be full of love because we got to meet. we’re just glad that when it’s time you’ll still be waiting right there.
For Mama, on your birthday
she loves listening to all my dreams no matter how bizarre and i trust her with all my nightmares
For Madeline, on your half birthday
you’d come over through the back and lay out your paints in the garden and tell me about the solstice or you’d make crêpes salées in the afternoons or when you climbed those wrought iron gates to steal a bunch of lilacs in the spring.
For Stefan & the butterflies
five years ago now my cousin, Stefan, passed away at age ten. he loved being outside, in gardens, with animals, and he especially adored butterflies. the day before he died, he got to visit Butterfly World and for a few moments he could forget about being sick.
A Letter for My Brother
it was as if our entire childhood was a never-ending summer as we played in the pool and jumped on the trampoline, sleepovers are ouma's house, running with the dogs up and down the dunes barefoot and the hours drives to the farm where we spent every minute outside in die karoo.