for my parents on their 33rd wedding anniversary. 

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for t., who trotted around all day in his little baseball uniform, growling bezbull, bezbull.

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for all the gorgeous weather we've been having recently. so far the month of august has been one long golden afternoon.

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for the hydrangeas  (or "high dangers," as c. used to call them) in the yard at work. they're too much for me in july---blowsy and oversaturated, their blooms lolling heavily off the tree---but i love them now, past-peak, when they begin to look like an old hand-tinted photograph of themselves, the face of each petal touched by an artist intent on evoking, from memory, the precise, watery shade required.

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for audra's coworkers, who are so kind to us and to roo when we visit: a whole community of aunties and grandmothers.