drink ginger-ale, pretend to help in the garden,
make bird feeders, and leap through backyard sprinklers,
before we stained our hands with strawberries.
We’d sit in the basement,
snacking on cinnamon toast (that still doesn’t taste the same
next to the faulty exercise bike
and the shelves filled with decades
There we were enveloped by the smell of memories our parents had made,
and Pepere’s piano lessons.
This was the home he returned to
and mom’s house was no longer his.
This was where he told me he’d met someone.
But this was where childhood wonderment
were never hindered by news of any sort.
This was where summers were spent
blissfully dragging the creaky wagon to the top of the hill
and feeling the wind against our cheeks
on the descent. This was where any day could be spent
drawing in the office, at our kids table,
creating masterpieces to hang on the fridge.
and the yard was an outdoor exhibit
a shed with a tool to fix anything,
bird feeders, the vegetable garden,
and the ancient tree and tire swing.
In the yard I escaped Passover matzah
to hunt for easter eggs with
small bills, change, jelly beans
and three special gifts for the cousins
(each meant for one in particular who always somehow
And in the summer we caught fireflies
our toes tickled by the grass
our hands tickled by insect feet.
the hill was always ready
for our (quarter mile) trek up,
and (quarter mile) race down,
until it was time to return our rosy runny noses
and blankets around our toes
that waited for us inside.
And we would nap in Memere’s bed
or Pepere’s at the top of the stairs
though I never understood the separate bedrooms
until one sleepover when I heard the saw-like snore.
Before the bedrooms came our staircase launchpad
for paper and wooden airplanes,
for hiding and for seeking.
And there was never a shortage of saltines and jelly
or neighbors to teach us how to knit.
Memories of the house smell
like pull apart angel cake
and it still feels like small fingers
swimming through the yellow bowl
in search of the perfect button,
sounds like a screen door opening,
and looks like a world so much bigger.
