I used to call you Sweetie,
all the time, from your birth
through childhood, adolescence,
into adulthood, then suddenly
you were without your mother.
For some years, honestly, I
don’t recall what I called you.
I was just calling myself a
bourbon on the rocks. Then
I recalled calling you Sweetie,
but by then you were a wife
and mother and living a
gazillion miles away and we
had grown apart, which is
perfectly natural, but doesn’t
help me in deciding what to
call you now that we are grow-
ing ever closer together. Maybe,
now that you are the adult I
was about when your mom died,
I should just ask you what you
want me to call you, Sweetie.