I remember when I was little
my mother reading me Peter Rabbit books
my father putting me to sleep telling me stories
that started with “It was a dark and stormy night….”
and others like the one about the boy named Anthony Reed and
what happens when you go near bad ice
I remember my grandmother in Ireland
giving me and my brother candies while she sat
in the light of the window smoking her silk cut cigarettes
and my grandpa in america when I was younger
I remember him rocking me in a wooly arm chair
and feeding me candies while my grandmother
sang to me song like “lazy bones sleeping in the sun…”
i remember birthdays big cakes and all my
cousins being there and my other relatives
I remember these things with warm feelings in my heart
and the memories like flowers are beautiful stepping stones
of me growing up in the most loving family one could ever ask for
I remember my first dog she was a naughty little puppy
always bitting at my ankles Minnie was her name
she grew with me and looked over me
I remember toys I had like stretch arm strong and G. I. Joes
I remember running outside in the alley with the Alley kids playing
cops and robbers, or ghost version of hide and go seek
counting out each other by 123 deciding whom would be it
I remember my child hood it was the best
I remember getting a little brother
from nicaragua like me and feeding him carmelos
i remember all that as if it were yesterday