Let Me Tell You about Esme - Aug. 10, 2026

a thin

reserved and bespeckled

        English lady

          I met for the second time

                                                             today

        at Poetry Rock

who

I believe

has slipped away

   with more copies of my poems

                            than anyone else

                                              who I also believe

                                                       believes

if you’re kind to the world

                                                             the world

                                                                     will be kind back

                 asked

politely

How were your mangoes this year?

                                               I went inside

came back with three

                                                          and watched her carry

        the largest and softest

                                                       the most perfectly ripe one

           like a sleeping child

                                                               and

                                                        carefully walk home