03/28/24 "Friendship Bracelet" It was a mistake to be here now. Favored is the gold ribbon of the past: predictable, amenable, pliable against the vagueness of memory. I'm pulling hard into the night, resisting every sunrise. Soothing existential angst in the warm waters. Everyone can dine in the place life stagnates but doesn't die. Where the new mantra is: 'Stories we tell ourselves'. _________ Ally F.V.