Hello love, we never met. Writing in hopes that you’re safe, warm, and well. Winter is rolling over the border these past few weeks, and my beard is stretching into the Boston wind. I guess you don’t need to know such things now. I do need you to know a few things though, as I’ve put this off now a lifetime. I’ve written it a thousand times over on my squeaky side of the bed, but ink never dries in a wandering mind.

I’ll spare you the details, but I have had a good life. One too many nights cursing the moon for being blurry, maybe, but that is not the worst sin. I ran one night and spent some time down in the Carolinas after Johnny passed. I thought of you most nights when the sun was lingering on summer’s edge.

To be honest, my time here has come down to an end. I’m not mad at you anymore for never sitting next to me on a train. Never smiling at me across 5th in the rain, or making me a better man. There were broken hearts along the road, of course. Certainly a few nightmares I woke myself from. Frankly, the only sweat this bed felt for many years. There were holidays I spent drunk with cousins who have long since passed. They would have loved that laugh of yours.

I’ll leave you with this, baby…I really hope you found a true love to hold close when the world was angry. And I sure hope he treated you as well as I always dreamed I would.

D.K.