Category: childhood
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Summertime
Before air conditioning was a thing all doors and windows were open In the hall a box fan stirred the air moved it to the kitchen for supper Pulled weeds, hoed the garden picked worms from off the vines Rode bikes, played in the sprinkler sat in the front yard after dark Drank nickel root…
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Kissing country girls
She said, “You have to leave!” I asked, “Why?” She replied, “No one comes out this far in the country” I smiled and said, “I do.” She said, “That dust cloud on the horizon is Daddy’s truck.” I got in my car and left 8-10-20
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One-winged bird
On a wall of my mother’s parents’ living room hung her siblings all in a row and a photo of Grandpa’s family. It took me 68 years to ask where was grandma’s family. A simple answer, a dark secret or just the misogyny of an old German family. I’ll never know. The whys of this…
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Time shifter
In the back aisle of the grocery I saw you from behind Long stride, hunched shoulders shaggy dark hair _____ I followed to be sure it was you Near the checkout you turned Sad, kind, thoughtful eyes You smiled as you looked away _____ It’s been a couple of years since The night they found…
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Mequbbal
Do you ever think that a prophecy is pre-existent somewhere – somehow That a prophet is just returning to the past to drag us kicking and screaming into the future Like our parents lecturing us on the living room couch that someday we would understand Someday is now and we are living that promised future…
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Inside
I still think of dad and how he wouldn’t crawl inside our backyard tent because he knew what the inside of a tent looked like And he vowed that if he survived the war he’d never stick his head inside a tent, again _____ I always wanted a gun to shoot and hold in my…
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Indiana summers
Tonight, I can taste braunschweiger on white bread Red Kool-Aid that left a smiley face Peaches so juicy I ate them on the back steps and Fudgesicles that dripped down my chin onto my shirt I remember playing kick ball in the street Chicken on my bicycle and never turning away Freeze tag and hide-n-seek…
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That guy
I am that guy that guy who stands in a museum up close to a Frankenthaler painting looking at an individual stroke where a brush fiber rises up thinking everything I discern had meaning for the painter I am that guy that guy who stares at a Kahlo piece from across a gallery trying to…
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Fried hotdogs
Fried hot dogs split down the middle Yellow mustard on a plate green olives straight from the jar This is not health food or a recipe from Southern Living This is childhood memories hot summer days on the end of a fork You can savor and burp in the middle of the night 7-2-20
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Barefoot on my daughter’s front porch
Tired and hungry from the night Mustapha whines at the back porch screen. It is my daughter’s house so I won’t let him in I want to listen to birds and sip my coffee quietly before the sun and grand kids rise. I tell him to hush, go somewhere else. He continues his mewling high…
My husband's poetry 