Emily Dickinson

(From a Fake Fan Mail reader…)

I have written this letter a thousand times. And this is the next and last attempt but also the one where I abandon all hope of writing something to you, in all gratitude, that would show even a dusting of pollen on the page as witness to the fact that I have read you once, and twice, and many times, passionately and in awe or dumbfounded, nearly every day of my last twenty years or so, since, a little girl, I happened upon your cramped quarters and realized their confinement and enormity. So, Emily, Dear Emily, Sister That I Never Saw, I hope you were happier than I am but in any case I do say “Thank You” and “I love your words” and your awkward voice and sometimes uncouth but perfect voicings and suspect that I could love you, too.

— Shelly Bentham