justwrite 21 february

well then about that and around the corner as well there’s a fell swoop and a limber loop worth picking up with the next hook it’s a crochet sort of deal but really I don’t remember really it was in November or another cold time with red yarn and aunt kate in mount union this is one of those times when I write about something real about the candy dishes on the table one tall and cut green glass with a lid that could have been a crown for a small-headed queen and the low one metal with a fitted lid you had to widefingered open or pick up and twist and this is not important but of course I remember when you’re young you think about candy and staying up late and nick at nite even though you know this is the wrong spelling and you are me and I you have frosted mini-wheats for breakfast these are just healthy enough they are kept in Tupperware pourable containers and juice comes in small amber glasses it is apricot nectar it is ambrosia it is grape juice and of course there are people aunt kate has the orange chair and grandma has whichever one she wants of course this is her house and her scrabble board on the kitchen table she knows how to spell every word and no matter how much older I get she will always know more I am waiting to grow smarter to grow older but for now I am content with a walk to pick flowers down around the block and past my father’s old school through a rusty playground and closer to the river but not that close you cannot hear the water you cannot see the fish for the trees but coming up the turn again it’s the church and the sign and the factory also the corner store catty-corner to her house and the picture in my mind whenever I read a novel or a short story in which a corner store appears it is this one on the corner of Jefferson and nostalgia back up the front porch we walk or around back into the parking lot where the ladies in their wide cars would land and step into the shop to be primped and poofed and talked to and listened to and in this parking lot I learned to ride a bike through the eighties my father and I so young in this picture and everyone else is too of course we are thinking about Popsicles and we are trying to be cool in this summer the sun visor is keeping off and into the garage but there’s not enough room for people with the blue mustang pulled in and in the basement it’s just too scary alone but playing pool and eating apple pie in a years-later senior trip it’s just right just fine enough for bluster and twisting off the back half of the cue to take the right shot and the deep breath comes in and out slowly knowing it’s all still there safe and cool held in my hand with the rest of the wildflowers landing in the middle of the counter as we fix ourselves a snack