Let me remind you
so I can remind myself
to take note of your own
particulars:

the ambient cold that sneaks
up the gaps between your layers;

the smell of laundry
which is the smell of you
skipping school by hiding
from the bus behind your house
and always reminds me of you
ducking next to cinderblocks
and the breath the dryer exhaust makes
in mornings when it’s still cold;

the things on your desk;
have you looked at them lately?
It is good to pick up the things
you use as decorations
and touch them and turn them
in light with your hands.

the internet; it has turned my house
into a museum, but it’s really kind of it
to let me talk to you as fast as I can,
even if it still
sometimes
takes months.

Michael Hurley is from Pittsburgh, PA. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Cincinnati Review, Sycamore Review, New Delta Review, The Massachusetts Review, Copper Nickel, Mid-American Review, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review, North American Review, FIELD, Crab Orchard Review, Blackbird, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere.  His chapbook, Wooden Boys, is available from Seven Kitchens Press.