Para Maximiño | 2020

At the beginning of 2020, right before the world turned upside down thanks to the Pandemic™, I was deeply in love. Being as incredibly sappy as I was, I wrote a small chap for this person. I printed it out on copy paper and presented it in my criminally small dorm room with the strip LED lights set (in hindsight, embarrassingly) to a cheesy shade of red. It was a beautiful moment. I can think of only a few times when I felt happier. Although this person and I are no longer entangled in that way, they remain a very important part of my life, and we like to think that the way we loved each other has evolved, not ended. This Valentine’s Day chapbook I made shows a small window into a moment where I was blessed enough to have someone in my life that made me feel deeply content. It is hard for me to look back at old work and say whether or not it was “good” writing – all I can say is that my writing has evolved since I put this together as the lovesick undergrad I was (we all must start somewhere). And, more importantly, it made the person I care about smile, which I think was the true measure of the work. I hope my (arguably poor) writing here encourages you to love people proudly and embarrassingly. Buy flowers. Write cheesy poems. Encourage proper hydration. And Maximiño, if you read this - thanks for being you.