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epistle log 30irty 0ne
audio letters
sifting through/living out of boxes, i find many things of many friends gone by. most lost to all but the vaguest memory. not clay, though. on this tape he lives and breathes, a snapshot of the brilliant kid i knew, exuberant and lusting for the future. a role model, if you will. yes, i idolized him, but it was hard not to, if you knew the man.
holy surprise entrances, batman! he pops in and out: a phone call here, recently an email there, always a reminder. but that tape he sent, that is indestructible: so many conversations i wish i could go back and have again, and with this monologue i have that wish. he anticipated my questions, and his commanding rhetoric makes me forget that i’m not there with him.
from this snapshot i always build a picture of him, of what he’s thinking. the four years closer to the future that have passed have brought him even more playmates for that mind. the boy must be eating up all the knowledge that this world has to offer. but what i anxiously await, is to see what he does with it. clay, this one’s for you: a toast to a man who’s often distant but never forgotten.
07|**|99