Love & Things

Copyright 2021 by Rosalie Celestino Echon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distribute, and adapt any part of the work without written permission from the publisher.

Published by BookBaby

Manufactured in the United States of America

Cover Design: Josh Lau

Print ISBN: 978-1-66784-646-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66784-647-7

Contents

I

Pieces of Things

Instead

Rendezvous

Queen of Hearts

Moonlight

On the Topic of Death: Finding Life

Dear Basketball

Snowfall

Simplicity

To Whom It May Apply

Just In Case

Sunlight

Heaven Brew

Eight Things I Learned from Having Cancer

Homebound

Awhile

Wondering

II

Balloons

To The Pencil: A Love Letter from a Classroom Desk

To The Classroom Desk: A Love Letter from a Pencil

To The Desk: A Love Letter from a Pencil #2

Instinct

To A Steering Wheel: A Love Letter from a Pillow

To A Staple: A Love Letter from a Paperclip

To a Chopstick: A Love Letter from a Sock

To A Sunflower: A Love Letter from a Picture Frame

To A Newspaper: A Love Letter from a Rubber Band

Still

To A Sail: A Love Letter from a Skipping Stone

To A Skipping Stone: A Love Letter from a Sail

To The Wind: A Love Letter from the Ocean

To A Telescope: A Love Letter from a Microscope

To A Reflection: A Love Letter from a Mirror

To A Magnifying Glass: A Love Letter from a Violin

III

Petals

Bryophyta

Refill

Honeymoon

Eclipse

Hammers

Washing Machine

Memories

Midnight on Main Street

Before We Know It

To Death

A Letter from Flight 13

IV

Raindrops

The Crossroad

Fireflies

V

Thank you

FXCK CANCER

VI

The Eulogy

Being Forever Resilient

Testimonials

Love and Things is a love letter to the world. A compilation of spoken words transcribed and compiled from the left behind works of Xavier Echon, a boy who lived his life with a curious eye and generous heart. Love and Things teaches us to find love in the simplest of ways and weaves a narrative of resilience, courage, and beauty. These poems are Xavier’s legacy, the words he left behind sketch the world that he saw; a passionate, beautiful life where socks fall in love with chopsticks and hearts break like birthday piñatas.

I Really Do This…

I

Pieces of Things

After my heart was broken like a

birthday piñata,

I stared at its contents,

surprised that there was so much,

for only one person.

Just pieces of

bubblegum compliments

that somehow lost its flavor,

chocolate-covered promises

that only melted in the heat

of things,

cherry-flavored I love you’s

that will never be unwrapped

and enjoyed,

just pieces of things

I wanted you to save

for later.

Instead

So last night I had a dream, and in this dream my mind

took us back to when I met you and you met me for

the first time.

We relived past lives, yet each step backwards through

time began feeling like billions of years.

And I forgot everything that I wanted to tell you to the

point where I was too nervous to even introduce myself

to you.

See, we were both stars.

Billions of years ago when the universe was still young.

We formed the same constellations and together we

brightened the sky.

But you were always miles away from me.

So, I whispered messages on stardust, and I sent them

to you.

But by the time they got there, I died.

And then I was resurrected as a Greek who lived in Athens.

And you were a goddess who lived on Mount Olympus.

And every day I walked to the foot of the mountain hoping

you’d look down from the Pantheon, and noticed that the

constellations in my veins matched yours.

But I was just a mortal.

And I died worshiping a marble statue of you that barely

captured fractions of your beauty, and then I opened

my eyes, and I was Leonardo De Vinci, and you were

Mona Lisa.

And I thought maybe, just maybe, if I painted the comets

in your smile perfect enough, you’d remember me.

But when I finished my painting, you never came back.

And I died without ever seeing you again.

And then I came back again as a Hummingbird.

And every day I’d visit you while you watered your garden.

I would sing you songs sweeter than any orchestra could

ever play for you.

And I thought finally, you’d recognize me.

But one day, you moved away.

And the loneliness killed me.

And when I awoke, I was a piece of chalk.

And you were an eraser.

We were both owned by Albert Einstein.

I would write equations on the board.

You would fix all my mistakes.

We completed each other.

But when he died, so did we.

But I never gave up.

And I kept coming back to look for you.

I wore a name tag everywhere I went.

Thinking to myself maybe, just maybe, you were one

of the strangers that I passed by every day.

And seeing my name will help you to remember.

I drew arrows on pieces of cardboard that I would

hammer onto telephone poles.

They would point in the direction of my house.

And I prayed once, just once you’d follow them like

breadcrumbs and we’d find each other again.

I wrote hundreds of letters that I would put into these

glass bottles.

I would cast them out to random directions of the sea.

Hoping just once, just once, one would float to your feet

while you walked on the beach continents away.

And you’d read it and write me back.

But each time you never did, and I died.

Man, I died without ever finding you.

But even worse, I died right before

I got a chance to tell you.

It took me a billion years to say.

That’s why today.

Maybe I’ll hug you just a little too tight.

Or make it awkward if I stare at the stars in your

eyes for too long.

But it’s only because I’m scared.

That one day I’m going to lose you.

And I’m going to have to find you all over again.

And let’s be honest,

I do not want to spend another billion

years looking for you. I want to spend them with you,

Instead.

Rendezvous

I wonder

if the dream versions

of ourselves

still meet up in our dreams

every so often.

A subconscious rendezvous,

when both our beings

momentarily stop

shaping lives separate

from one another

to live out the promises

we failed to keep.

Queen of Hearts

So, one night I decided that I was going to write you

the perfect love poem.

A poem so incredibly crafted that you’d understand

just how much you mean to me.

The only problem though, is once I start to write about love,

It never seems to fully grasp everything I want it to mean.

I guess it just goes to show that love is more

than just words on a page, but nonetheless,

I still wanted to write you the perfect love poem.

Look, I’ll be honest with you.

Love and I never really saw