It is this frigid winter that makes me most recall
Those sun-drenched summer days at Grandma’s most of all
Oh, Tennessee Street, oh, Tennessee Street. That’s the place for me.
Fanning herself those mirthful nights,
She’d watch us play, Grandma did, she did.
Jump rope, keep-away, tag and hopscotch.
We’d race each other to the end of the block.
No driveways to worry us, not in those days.
Alleys kept them quite away.
The swing on her porch is where Grandma sat,
Swinging gently, gently.
Oh, Tennessee Street, oh, Tennessee Street. That’s the place for me.
She’d wave a wave and smile a smile at us, at Tom, Sarah and me.
When the sun was setting and twilight came
“Time to come in,” Grandma’d claim.
She’d slice a red apple for us to share,
Wash us up from foot to hair,
And chase us off to our trundle beds.
Grandma’d kiss us on both cheeks, I swear,
And then we’d all say our goodnight prayers.
An icy blast from the window now screams,
Numbing my shoulder, shattering that dream,
Shattering that world, not to repeat.
Shattering that world on Tennessee Street.
By Marilyn K. Neulieb [Just a River Rat's memory of childhood, which could be anywhere, including the River community.]
Marilyn K. Neulieb is a member of Poets & Writers, INK of Cape Vincent, N.Y. She was the 2015 runner-up in non-fiction at the Jefferson Community College North Country Writers Contest. Her work has been accepted by Christian Science Monitor, Mother Earth News, Ideals, Alternative Living, Home Power and many more. Living off the grid for close to four decades, surfaced her bent to write.
Header photo This photograph was entered into the December 2018 TI Life photo contest. Honorable Mention: "Serenity" Photo by Karen Millspaugh, ©2018
Posted in: Volume 14, Issue 3, March 2019, Poetry
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