What I Learned... for Paco, in memoriam

On the last day of 2023's January Writing Hours (thank you Kim Moore and Clare Shaw) I wrote this in response to the first prompt, based on Brad Aaron Modlin's poem "What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade" - having learned the day before that my friend and half of my favorite publishers had died. Paco, you would not be surprised to find that, as always, it's all about me.