what chatgpt cannot comprehend

What to say to your friend

when they tell you their parents are divorcing.

You don’t yet understand adults,

you only know sorry.

The cookbook with a single worn page,

chocolate chip cookies made

before the house could afford a hand‑mixer.

Scribbled notes from early college,

half‑finished sentences from quick-moving slides.

Group-guessing how cocktails are made,

using the screw‑top as a unit of measure-

your first real laugh after the breakup.

Bad drawings and crafts

from when you still had time.

Sitting criss-crossed

tutoring one another in maths before a test.

Silly arguments, misremembering.

Seeing the swallows one day in summer,

and never again until the next.

Using a Collins dictionary 

so big it spreads over both palms.

Feeling a strange empathy

for the older man taking the bus-

talking, for a brief moment.

Failing.

Being okay with being wrong.

Crying; writing about it.

Feeling the change in seasons.

Asking your mother if that’s a swallow.

Figuring it out together.

Not knowing email etiquette.

Figuring it out alone, sometimes.