These Are the Things I Remember (poem)

My feet grazing over the jagged edges of summer afternoon grass; mother’s lap as the only safety I ever needed; potted plants and relentless spirit; friends and sisters and mothers and fathers and first and second and third… and every other kind of cousin there was, all coming together, never apart (for long); chocolate milk and cookies in lieu of sleeping pills cast away many of the sleepless nights; Britney Spears’ CD put on; ‘’exercising” alongside Cindy Crawford through the VHS tape; multi-coloured seashells by the seashore and in the garden, varnish scented, painted with the greatest precision a little girl can have; jumping and running and climbing and playing with dolls or trucks or dirt or rocks; not being shamed nor reduced for my shortcomings; being diverse in all facets of my being; laughing and crying, losing hope and regaining it anew; trusting the arbitrary powers of the expanding universe; having no qualms about airplanes being equivalent to shooting stars; my tiny zoo, a source of immense pride, consisting of cats, tortoises, butterflies, birds and an occasional hedgehog; being in the spotlight of most gatherings and the crippling anxiety that would ensue; candied chins and crescent eyes; running, running, running…; ‘’Come home before the streetlights do.’’, ‘’Do not fill up your belly too much because there is cake.’’, ‘’What are you going to dream about tonight?’’, ‘’Kiss my bruise so it heals faster, please!”, ‘’Momma tell me the story of my birth again”, ‘’Shh, do not wake up grandpa.’’, ‘’Little blondie, look how cute you are!’’, ‘’How long before I am fully grown?”

Another one bites the dust…  now those days are far behind. Now there are requirements to fulfil, topics to discuss, moments to experience, constantly adding to the rush. And though, the homely stars always bring me close, I am no longer where she was.