Cali-graphy

“Romantic love is a beautiful thing under the right circumstances. But those circumstances are so specific and rare.”

― Taylor Jenkins Reid, One True Loves

Meeting the love of your life

through

a

letter

halfway across the country

addressed vaguely

ATTN: Hockey Office Staff

mailroom clerk

absent

so you

father

opened it

she had such perfect penmanship

replied

in your kind way

how one gets into hockey journalism

instead she

dropped out of college

married the sport

your championship

ring

the wedding band

lost to the ocean

and what is a daughter to do

the product of postage stamps

before even they became

forever

but wonder

if my own

southpaw

scrawl

is to blame

for the fact that love

never

fit

me

right

a dotted

T

a star-crossed

eye

practiced cursive

the way most children said their prayers

but I'm a lefty

so it was smearing

as I wrote

my

words