(For Sue Reynolds who walks through the world
with these words inked on her wrists, and in memory
of our mentor and friend Pat Schneider.)

•••

Spacious as in plenty of space,
as in having great capacity
like your great heart,

which seems to embrace the world
like your great arms that wrap around—
oh, say, me—in an enormous hug.

So much in that heart, that hug.
It says, You are enough.
I am enough.

Separately, we can do anything we wish.
Together, we can love a tiny bit of the world
with our two octopus hearts,

our four embracing arms,
which we have done in the past week.
As she—

who insisted that we had to meet,
who suspected that, even a continent apart,
we would become friends—

liked to say,
You did good.
You did well.

And we so have.