I watched my truths unfold.
A baby hand wrapping a pinky finger.
Paper beating rock. Smashed lightning bug palm.
Tight plastic first grade pencil bag.
Bus Eight seat sheen from black girls' braids.
Plastic bluebird barrettes heaped in a
Junk drawer pile.
I saw the faded jumpers hanging in the beige closet.
Keds on the floor, black smudges on white rubber soles.
Watery red apples by Formica mail piles.
Smudged Boxcar Children staggered
High beside the paint dripped book case.
Fat chalk chipping on the black asphalt driveway.
The vanilla Keebler Elves sleeping in a blue coffee can.
Wax paper levels, tiers of smiling cookies,
Burnt Tollhouse pieces buried in the rubble.
Tumbleweed carpet balls on the scratchy den rug.
Grandma's batik butterflies in the yellow half bath,
Lemon Pledge on Mama's leaning chocolate brown piano,
Melting in heat of it all.
