I remember:
Back before I itched,
When “Eczema” was something my mom had
When my parents joked more
When dad would walk around with flowers behind his ear to
make me laugh
When he would open bottles with his teeth, because mom
teased him about it
When I was an only child,
So bored that I would sit on my head
When my sister was born,
I’d sort of wanted a dog, but she was okay instead
My mom was stuck in the hospital for days
It was weird that I had to leave home to visit her
My grandmother, uncle, and aunt came to visit
I was so pleased at my new videogame, Wario Ware
I had a Scooby-doo gumball machine that I forced my uncle to
put change into
He cheated, and put in pennies.
And before that all, when my mom would take me travelling
with her
Prague, where they sold crepe-things-as-big-as-your-face on
the street
Saint Thomas, where I had my hair done up in corn rows,
By some back-alley, illegal hairdresser lady
Cruises with my parents where I’d spend all day in the
daycare,
Watching Fern Gully.
I’d passed up the chance to see a rainforest and maybe some
toucans
I was friends with Kaitlin, who lived down the road
Her parents were divorced, but I remember her dad
Before our parents had a falling out on my birthday,
And forbade us from hanging out
Back before I dropped out of Chinese language school,
When Gameboy Color was the shit
When Lucas and I would build hospitals out of building
blocks
Graham-cracker teddy-bear patients
Smelly Jack Nail knocking everything over
Indoor Recess
Recess in general…
Preschool naptime, when Mikaela and I would whisper
The dirty teddy bears the preschool had in a basket
My classmates bum rushing it for a napping buddy
The time I tripped because I couldn’t keep up with my mom
We were late to someone’s birthday
Doctors were picking gravel out of my face for an hour or
three
The scab was begging to be pulled off during naptime,
So I obliged.
Never remembering how to tie my shoes,
Making teachers do it for me.
Finally learning the one time that I happened to see Mikaela
doing it.
Laughing hysterically at the word “butt”
“Catch-up/Ketch-up” jokes
Mikaela moving away to South Carolina
My first grade teacher hating me.
And my kindergarten teacher.
Amazing Ms. Taar in second grade, who taught me to love
reading
