All Through The House

I liked to talk myself into these stories---

so that I could remember yesterday and the day before that and the day before that

until then---

and I would remember pajamas that I secretly loved because they made me then

and I remember being the blue girl and boy with a love for his written word

and Oreos

always Oreos---

At night, they would put us up in the room with the Springsteen poster---

on an angled ceiling

and I would wait for the smell of eggs

and I would look for the Leg Lamp in the distance

and the rebirth of the day's cold air

because that's how we dealt with impatience then

There was no death on the horizon---

only the concerns of the Magnificent Seven---

and their seven and the seven after that and the seven after that

and how we would keep the trains moving back then

even on dithering track in my little diorama

without breaking so much as an ornament---