A POEM A DAY

With thanks to Anis Mojgani

Take a deep breath.
Are your feet fixed to the ground?
Now is a good to time to announce
to the rest of the world that you
have not forgotten to love yourself.
The marquee of the Abandoned Chili’s on Westheimer
looks like a chalk board a teacher forgot to erase
on the last day before summer vacation.
I read, Love Yourself as I pass pay.
Anis Mojgani once wrote Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself
and that line has lived in the Abandoned Chili’s of my heart ever since
I was a teenager watching his poems on YouTube on my mother’s bedroom computer.

I am a father
now
in this timeline, driving down Westheimer during lunch time
My son, Mateo, is pulling words from the soil like flowers
delivered to our front door to tell his mama I love her.
Mateo has never met Anis Mojgani or been to Chili’s
But I know he loves himself
When Mateo meets a mirror,
the mirror meets Mateo lips
My boy kissing his existence
Love in his lips even without
the words to describe it
Guess that’s why I’m here
To hear him speak
every time he stands so
I do not forget
how to speak for myself,
which is
how a father-poet
loves himself.