Category: childhood
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Flint spark
I have indulged myself, bought all those things forbidden by my youth or lack of means. Watching rain fall from my porch I realized I never bought that shiny Ronson lighter they kept behind glass so adolescent wannabe cool kids wouldn’t steal from Schnaible’s Drugs. I don’t smoke and have no need of fire, but…
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The dance
When I was young I had no fear. I dove off bridges into the flooded Wabash, turned off head lights and raced away into the night on acid, hitchhiked across America, stood toe to toe with a cop and a billie club and won. I took my beating from a squad of his buddies in…
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Cassie’s hat
sunrise, thirty degrees, take your blood pressure meds and crawl back in bed 9 am, put on Cassie’s hat, grab coffee in a blue cup and walk to the park watch mallards rush to safety on the other side of the pond as you approach return from the park, your father’s voice demands to know…
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Dreaming prime numbers 7,919
You climb Your favorite neighborhood tree from childhood. You climb until you can see Beyond the trees and houses of your neighborhood. Your neighbor does not want you in their tree And neither does dad. They call up through the branches. You stay still until they leave. On the way home, you rehearse a story,…
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Do
Something in me always says I don’t have time to read the READERS WRITE section of Sun magazine so I pass over it. It must be some childhood trigger which causes me to do this so I continue to do this every month. It’s a habit and I don’t care. _____ When I get to…
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4 poems on 1-22-23
01/22 – today is a day for reading and daydreams and capturing short unnamed snippets of poems that swirl around me #1 A young boy never sees a tree he doesn’t want to climb in his neighbor’s yard, the county courthouse grounds, grandma’s house, the gorilla enclosure at the zoo An old man looks for…
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QAnon childhood inoculation
squinting into nightfall pink/orange on gray clouds eyelids tired of trying gum grows tasteless throw it out the window mom said, Albert, if a bird eats your gum, it will expand in their belly and explode for a silly moment I feel remorse and then tell myself I’ve never seen a bird drop from the…
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at our daughter’s house in Locust Grove, GA
Daffodils bloom in January, a dozen cardinals gather on the lawn. When the back door opens, take flight and chatter in the woods. Mom would like it here. Dad would like anywhere he can watch the football playoffs undisturbed and fall asleep by halftime in a comfortable chair. I wait to be happy doing what…
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The burnishing
“My first counsel is this, possess a pure, kind and radiant heart” (Baha’u’llah) crow in woods torments squirrel at bird feeder neither of them will quit neither of them will win trauma of growing up love and hate relationships do not go away there is no finish line no final tabulation sum of victory and…
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Seven questions
When did you stop looking up to find shapes in the clouds? When did you stop imagining heaven peeking through as light showers? When did you stop seeing who could swing highest in the backyard swing? When did you stop talking for hours with friends about your dreams? When did you stop calling in requests…