all because that night
after stepping out of the kentucky theatre
after walking the several blocks
up to lyndhurst
and piling ourselves into
adam’s studio apartment-

after sardining ourselves
on a futon – your aunt and I
shoulder to shoulder with beers warming in
our palms and old music videos
highlighting our faces-

your mother fell in love.

II.

first there was digging through
records at pop’s resale store
– at least a row between us –
no words spoken
just a black hole of energy
like were we to look at each other
we would fall out of existence

III.

we had that conversation too

late into the night
we entertained ourselves with other dimensions and parallels
and sometimes I did wonder
if the hand in his was really mine
if the space we breathed together
would run out and leave us drowning
if the earth would stop spinning
and we would just drift together
into some great
unknown dark
infinity

IV.

but that next morning,
the world still bright and alive,
I drew a smiling face in the condensation
on his bathroom mirror
and I knew I would marry him

V.

and let’s say we were right

and there are other timelines
with a thousand replicas of
mes and hims

I hope that in each of them
on march 22, 2014
the grand budapest hotel is playing
at the kentucky theatre
so that I know how to find him

and we can fall in love a thousand times

so that in every single one
of those thousand universes

I get to be
your mother