Memorial

by Bryan Washington

We all change. We’ll all have plenty of homes in this life. It’s when you don’t that there’s an issue. That’s settling.

That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn’t make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn’t diminish the love. It just changes forms.

Everything changes, she says. Change isn’t good or bad. It’s just change.

If you really squeeze your ears, the two noises suction in harmony, with Mitsuko and her son rising and falling in tandem, conducting their own tiny orchestra.

In the dim light of the apartment, we all look filtered. Sickly.

I told him you’d be perfect for him. I’m good at the moment. Sure. But sometimes the moment passes.