Before you go,
let me do so again:

I love youI love youI love youI love you
I love youI love youI love youIloveyou.

(Je t’aime. Te quiero. Ti amo.
Aloha nui loa—all my love)

Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

(Muchas gracias. Arigato. Danke.
Mahalo nui loa—thank you very much)

You did good. You did great. You made me me.
You, dear teacherfriendsmentorparenthuman,
I can’t imagine this life without you.

I apologize for all that stuff I did/said/forgot to do/
promised to do/thought I had done/thoughtlessly did
or said. So sorry. Really.

I’m beyond grateful for all that you did in kindness,
and anything other than that has dissipated like
the kettle’s steam as it readies itself for tea.

Of course, I’ll miss you, whether for an hour or a lifetime.
Of course, I want to hear from you. Send me a postcard,
drop me a text, show up as a whisper in my head on
my next walk or in a dream, one in which I’ll
likely not remember what you said, just that
we were together, and we were happy to be
in each other’s company, which we are
all the time anyway, carrying you
in my heart as I do, sewn
into the very fabric
of me.