I journey up and down the roads my parents traveled,
together and apart, in box after box of faded pages
that smell like stale bread and dusty violets.

I meet grandparents, aunts, uncles, and children —
trouble-makers and saviors, fatalities and survivors,
each with spoken and unspoken dreams.

Until one black night, in bed,
I feel someone’s body press against me.
But when I dare to open my eyes, no one’s there.

Has my dead mother come back for a caress,
some comfort or peace? Has my dead father returned
to revive himself with lost beauty?

Someone has crossed the invisible barrier
that is nothing but emptiness.
Someone presses closer, felt on my skin and deep in the bone…

Could it be that part of me wings across space and time
toward whoever I’m becoming —
and could this part of me become my oldest, dearest friend?