The Friendship Meme

I sip coffee from the orange Fiestaware mug
Heather gave me maybe 20 years ago
set it on the La Reina Santa Fe coaster
I took from the bar Lauren put us up in
I’m staring straight at the champagne-
scented candle Austin just brought me from
Mexico City in honor of Leo as Gatsby
now fully a figure with a life of his own
among me and my friends (are inside jokes
memes with a limited audience or are they
the opposite of memes which must be
replicable says the old book E left near the
toilet called Lifetide wherein I read about
memes before the internet and feel uneasy
learning about how memes are like viruses
we’d better figure out how to harness the
power of the meme which is not a virus
nor an inside joke nor a gift like the ones
from my friends that surround me) I
never had a wedding registry never had
a wedding did have a marriage once
briefly and many long friendships
building a life happens gradually
more plants and cats than Cuisinarts
gifts aren’t even my love language
but sometimes I squint in the right
angle of sun and try to keep the doors
of perception wedged open a little
wider and I see I’m living in a sea of
friendship in which I have a hard time
throwing things away so instead of
space junk or ocean plastic I am caught
in the orbit or swirl of the landfill of love