Birthday Thoughts

There were three of us tonight.

We ate "edible dirt."

I blew out a candle.

And we laughed and laughed and laughed.

Behind the howls was talk about life,

About our wild minds.

And I realized,

this closeness wasn't a nice-to-have,

the kind of thing you could go without.

It was, is, as vital as oxygen.

It's the sort of thing they should teach you in school.

But they don't. And that's a mistake.

Because, in the end,

it's the only thing that matters.