When I was 7
I had an imaginary friend.

His name was Albuquerque,
and nobody believed in him.

The kinda kid that always sits next to you in class
the always raised hand
but the teacher never mentions him during roll
the kid with the name that’s hard to pronounce

and even harder to spell.

They told me I’d grow out of it,
leave her for another City
one big enough for my dreams,

Look for love elsewhere, they said.
And I did,
but it was all a mirage.

I grew up “right near da beach”
landscape so flat
mountains
we’re the stuff of fairytales.

Unaware that one day
I would find myself
because I’d climb myself
and finally figure out what I am made of.

When I turned 21,
Albuquerque gifted me the cheat code to hydration
in the high desert.

And the next day,
it felt like a curse.
Hungover on horizon.

A mouthful of memories for breakfast
if we can make it up soon enough,
otherwise it’s hair of the dog for brunch.

Bottoms up.

That wingman with all the best stories.
That drinking buddy with all the worst jokes.

A history buff,
with a penchant for science fiction.
Albuquerque is an old school futurist
Never forgetting where she came from
But unafraid to put a rocket on her back
And head on into any final frontier.

But at the ripe old age of 27
she was a mid life crisis waiting to happen.
After stints in Spain, Mexico and the Ancestral Pueblo,

Albuquerque

was trying to find itself,
on the map of “what do you want to be when you grow up.”

And she thought…
American?

But what she said was…
LOBO.

Because a wolf is never 'lone
when it's a Nation
not a pack.

The Five-oh-Fifth borough of this state,
Albuquerque

is the Manhattan of New Mexico
from the project(s)
to Los Alamos...

In other words,
we the bomb.

And when I was 35
shortly after I figured it out…

I.E.
Right after grad school
and maxing out my student loans
Backpacking the handful of continents Albuquerque never called
“home”

I realized that her name
means honeymoon in at least seven languages,
and it means sueños in at least six

that she speaks sunset
just to remind me that every rockstar shoots itself to the same sunrise
every morning.

Stay woke.

And because they're vacations
are our staycations
I asked her to marry me

here.

On a broken beach
flooded with these adobe sandcastles
we call “homes.”

At 36,
I found myself the frontman in my best friend’s wedding.
The unsuspecting bridegroom at the weirdest intervention of all time.

Eye to eye with Albuquerque,
Confident that there has never been a better looking bride.

And as I wrap my arm around her
And prepare for the cruise of our lives…

She leans in and whispers the vows that’ll make me never forget that night.

...

I put a spell on you,
cause you are mine.

Enchantez.