It startled me.
I looked up from my desk.
Buried in client notes and scheduling.
Calendars and emails.
Love.
Just there.
In the air outside my window.
So insistent.
Listen to me it said.
Now.
Listen.
Tony Bennet.
I Left My Heart in San Francisco.
Absolutely blasting from a neighbor’s open window.
At sunset.
At the kiss of twilight.
There you were.
Love.
On the meniscus of sun against the sea.
Belting out your heart to me.
Reminding me of all the love songs and mixed tapes and playlists.
Every song a serenade of your love.
I opened my back door and walked out to the deck.
Phone in hand.
Connected to you.
In that moment.
Exquisite surprise.
And I felt.
Hope.
For the first time in sometime in all this crazy world with all its crazy.
(I don’t need to name the pink pandemic elephant in the room)
I felt hope.
Love.
A resurgence of light in my system and the sincerest sweetest most generative optimism.
I love you San Francisco.
I really.
Really.
Really
Do.
The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay
The glory that was Rome is of another day
I’ve been terribly alone and forgotten in Manhattan
I’m going home to my city by the Bay
I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me
To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars
The morning fog may chill the air, I don’t care
Auntiebubba 