Fading Glimpses

Fading Glimpses

Shreds and shards of memory

Some bright

Some dusty

My first time alone on a swing

Reaching for the sky

Puffy clouds above

The tops of branches drawing ever closer

King of the Swing!

Then Daedalus falling

Crashing

Flat on my back

Feeling nothing but pain

Betrayed by the sky

Paralyzed on the earth

Until my breath comes rushing back

I run home screaming

Unable to talk

Spending the evening on the floor

Laying on a heating pad and ice packs

Petting my dog

Who won’t leave my side

I remember grey cinderblock hallways

Smells of chalk dust and Tempera paint

Visiting the big kids’ school

To watch special presentations

Of “Jack and the Beanstalk”

And “Snoopy Come Home”

Dime bags of popcorn and

Hi-C in a cup

Better than orange drink

I remember faces lit

By the glow of sparklers

The taste of lighter-singed pretzels

An odd delicacy

Running in the night through

Connected back yards

Faces, faces, all of them friendly

Bradbury moments for the Bicentennial

Gone except for the files in my mind

Gone too soon