elegy for a crip friend (thank you alice)

A text between Alice Wong and Dom Kelly. The first text from Alice reads, "Thankful for you" and the response from Dom say, "Thankful for you too!"

there is no friend like
a crip friend.
the friend who checks in
when shit's hard
or who texts to say
"fuck ableism!" or
who says she needs prayers
because the world
has moved on from COVID
and she's not
safe. a crip friend who
sends pics of
her cats or her food
for some joy
while the whole world burns
all around us.
a friend who asks you
"how's the fam?"
when she's going through her
own neverending bullshit.
a crip friend knows when
you don't text
back for a while, low
spoons are real.
a crip friend doesn't need
to hide their
struggle or qualify their joy.
sometimes it's when
they tell you their body
is fucked up
today, but the memes are
still super funny.
a crip friend teaches you
to find joy
even when joy feels like
a missing person.
my crip friend alice, she
taught me everything
about how to be a
crip friend, even
before she wound up becoming
my crip friend.
my crip friend alice, she
sent a text,
"thankful for you" and i
said it back,
"thankful for you too!" and
i meant it.
because when you have a
crip friend like
alice, you can't not be
thankful for her.
thank you alice. i will
never forget you.
my heart hurts. all of
our hearts hurt.
we will miss you here,
but i swear,
all your crip friends, even
the ones you
didn't know, will keep building
a world full
of crip friends. even though
there'll never be
another crip friend like you.