MY BORDENTOWN

from ROAD TRIPS, poems

This one goes way back,

Back to the morning the doll was unboxed 

And the wrapping paper was so shiny

It reflected the bend in the day.

Decades ago, the doorbell rang...

Four eyebrows raised in arches, red lipstick

Covered many white teeth, and a kettle boiled.

The aunts welcomed them and celebrated the

Day they arrived on old Burlington Street.

That old storied house smelled like yesterday’s mothballs

And in the dim light the teen sensed the ghosts of ancestors 

Walking through the rooms of the house, a house that

Had many concealed rooms and probably many secrets to hide.

But they sat in the muted foyer decorated in bland colors 

And had dark tea and sweet cakes and talked about family 

And reminisced about distant relatives

Who at one place in time were so much closer

They could see each other's breath Falling from tongues.

And then the teen climbed a very steep narrow staircase 

To a room with a low ceiling and greeted an old uncle 

Who lay in his bed covered by a white chenille worn 

Bedspread and he beckoned for her to go closer 

Because he did not even know her name.

That was not the first time the teen breathed air

On Burlington Street.

There was an echo from a day long ago

Of a time when the child was so young she had to hold 

Her grandmother’s hand when she left that house.

It was a hot summer day when all was still 

And everybody walked more slowly.

The quiet sounds on the street soon melted away 

As they moved closer to the corner.

They followed the sound of the happy music 

Until they were in front of

The Clara Barton School.

The old one room schoolhouse was 

Surrounded by a white picket fence.

Until that day parties were a different experience. 

On that day it was red ribbons, red balloons

And red velvet cakes that stuck to her teeth

As would, in later years, her aunts’ lipstick.

And inside everybody was playing and dancing

And doing little things that mattered.

They sat on a worn bench by the window and the view 

Settled in and with one gasp the intoxicating

Memory of that party was forever set like

Solid stone inside her.

The hard rocks on the pavement during the walk back 

Grew envious.