[Glenn Wright]

Hi, David and James—

I appreciate your willingness to share how this piece affects you. It is very helpful to know how different readers respond to it.

David—Thanks for being a constant reader. Your skill with diction has been evident to me in your many heartwarming and often humorous poems about Manx culture and life, so I will keep your preference for “bends” in mind.

James—I’m glad you enjoyed it. Memory is a tricky thing. I had a clear memory of my father tying string to the corners of the kite, but I have been unable to find any description of diamond-shaped kites with that construction. They say that every time you retrieve a memory, you actually reconstruct it, so no two memories of the same event are ever the same. Not wanting to risk giving an inaccurate description of the rigging on the kite, I finessed it by not describing it at all. I hope that the cross shape of the perpendicular wooden slats serving as the skeleton of the kite suggest an altar cross, at least subliminally. In hoc signo vinces. Thanks for weighing in.

Glenn