Tonight, I had the greatest pleasure of getting to see Andrea Gibson recite some of her poems at Occidental college. We arrived just in time, right before she started. She was more beautiful than I had expected, and she was and so sincere and down-to-earth. I was one of the last people to talk to her while she was packing up the rest of her merchandise. I told her about the yellowbird tattoo. Instantly, her eyes widened, and her mouth morphed into a smile. She asked me to send her a picture of it after the last session, but I told her that I'd track her down instead to show it to her in person whenever that time came. She gave me a hug and I swear I fell in love with her a little bit. Andrea, you melt me alive... I knew every word to every poem by heart. But still, every time your strong voice started shaking, it sent shivers down my spine. And every time you cried out a solid "fuck", my bones melted into jelly. At the end of my favorite poem of yours, which you had done last, I realized that my eyes had welled up with tears and my hands were light and sweaty. Both my feet were numb from having fallen asleep, yet I felt lifted, and I wanted nothing more than to call my ex-lover and to tell her that it didn't matter if I was with or without her, because all I want is to wish her well.
"You were the first mile where my heart broke a sweat.
And I wish you were here. I wish you never left."
-Andrea Gibson, Photograph.
mkp.
