Category: childhood
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Oneirodynia
Disoriented, I wake stand at the kitchen sink For a moment, I feel as if I’m a child, again, living in Indiana, hunkered down, waiting for a blizzard, hoping they close school tomorrow But the wind doesn’t howl at my window tomorrow’s forecast is sunny and warm folks are hoarding sanitizer and toilet paper not…
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Haze
What is it about acrid smoke haze at dusk that makes you think of sandlot football family suppers and warm thoughts? What is it about burning leaves sock hat and gloves stirring dry leaves into a fire before you go inside? What is it about smokey piles dotting the neighborhood flavoring air like fog off…
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Birch tree
a birch tree grew in my neighbor’s yard I would peel paper thin bark write letters for the wind to read snow would bend graceful arches of slender limbs to ground the winter – when ravaging ice snapped it at its base I quit writing messages to the wind 2-23-20
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Front yards
You want a house on the edge of town land enough for a garden, chickens and guinea hens You want a screened porch to keep mosquitoes at bay and a stately oak tree to day dream under You want a nice cafe and coffee shop to walk to an independent book store next to the…
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Theo Meteoroi
You stared out into night skies and could not find the lion or swan the eagle or ram, Orion or the bear You wanted to believe – you wanted to see the magic you thought maybe you were blind or maybe you were not spiritual enough You argued with the Theoi Meteoroi and questioned who…
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If
On cold winter days mom would send you out to play you would watch the birds shiver on phone lines and thought maybe they gathered local gossip through their feet Hardly anyone has a landline anymore birds now shiver on cable TV lines you wonder if they prefer ESPN the Cartoon Network or cable news…
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4 a.m.
In my mother’s voice a cup and bowl call from the sink “Albert, how did you go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink? Quietly, I shut the kitchen door wash the dishes and try not to wake my wife sleeping in the bedroom Making the woman in your head and the one in…
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Hit the road Jack
Little Jack Horner sat in the corner didn’t use a fork and all the little girls knew he wasn’t a good boy Jack be nimble – Jack be quick Jack poked a woman with a stick never trust a politician who obsesses with his hair Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a…
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Cayce river walk
In shade of an eddy where you drank children fished for brim and sunfish with a cane pole and a worm every summer you leaned a little more above the river towards the light where no trees stood I would sit at your feet watch spotted newts hide in plain sight and ask you the…
My husband's poetry 