Let me love

Let me love my folds and rolls and crusted patches of skin,

As i love the imperfections of an abalone shell or the curves of a sand dune

Or the rough bark of a redwood

Let me love my neighbors

as unfathomable as they are with their sparkling garages, their shuttered windows, their quick darting in and out of their cars headed to an office or a mall or a spin class

Let me love my child’s tantrums

The way her face turns bright pink, her mouth open in a silent scream, her eyes puffed up with tears, her little heart breaking over the crumbling of a cookie, the misplacement of a shoe, the closing of a polka dot umbrella. Her tidal waves of grief for the smallest details of life

Let me love the world as she does

Wanting all the cookies intact, all the shoes found

and all the polka dot umbrellas spinning round