Imagined Subtext from My First Invitation to a Bachelor Party, by Timothy Dailey-Valdés
Come to the water
unnymphed and dammed.
Come to the brown wood
where whispers run
like blood, like rivulets.
Come to the baptismal font,
stone worked by men’s hands.
Come be brothered.
Come to us and toast
to one about to be transfigured by the fondness of another.
Come drink and drink and eat a bit.
Come love one another as The Lamb of God commanded before the slaughter.
Come to a Summer Seder.
Come to the Bro Jerusalem.
Come wear two party hats at once.
Come laugh at things.
Come drink your coffee at sunrise
sitting on the dock and yearning like a schoolkid yearns
for something unwordable. Come say
Shalom in every sense you can—
goodbye, hello, and peace.
Come to joy’s house.
Come to worship togetherness,
what came before,
what comes after.
Come say
Health
to her and him,
to life, long and happy, to
much of what anyone ever meant when they said god.
sketch of Jacob with a stranger's dog, by Timothy Dailey-Valdés