Childhood Memories

-Nostalgia-

She played hide and seek

And counts good when she’s it

Memorized the lines of the song

“I Love You” by Barney

She bit her playmate when she was six

And their slippers under the stairs

She’s a brat and she’s good (at it)

She’s a real headache, but one thing, she’s not rude

She swung that swing in the mango tree

Till she was twelve

She got hit on the butt one too many times

Before she’s eight

She fell from the guava tree and survived

She fell from the old house’s stairs

She fell from that thing on the playground and cried

She too much chocolates and lost her teeth

She crashed her bike too often and skinned her knees

Every day on Summer she’s outside on the streets

playing patintero or piko

She’ll never go home until her Mama comes for her

She tried to cut classes when she was nine

It was back in fourth grade one afternoon

She resented it after fleeing upon seeing a snake

She made friends and she made fights

Sometimes she’ll come home crying from a school fight

She’s tough and a lover of her old crayons and paints

She loves her Jennifer and Panda Bear

But outgrown them when she was ten

She stuck to her books, pens and paints

And watched cartoons ‘til eight

She climbed that branch of the old mango tree

And slept many afternoons on that mat

And from that big window, she sad with her Mama.

She ran from her Papa’s belt all over the backyard

She cried one too many times

Skinned her knees

Got bumps on her head

Got bruised and scarred her skin every ten days

She loved that old swing.

She swung it from four ‘til she’s twelve

She love everything from her childhood.

The laughters and pains,

lessons,

preaches,

fights and friends,

cries and tears,

beats and hits,

bruises and scars,

crayons, books, Panda and the bike,

the twilight of summer and auburn sky.

‘My swing. Oh, the old swing where all the childhood memories cling.’ 08/01/08