For weeks I saw cardboard boxes stacked outside the landing my neighbors
dismantled eight years of living everything taped and labeled
a two-bedroom bought on foreclosure paid off in overtime.
We agree. California’s way too expensive rents are crazy
so no more antique wagon wheel on the front porch
a feathery plant waving help when I’d locked myself out of the house
a white truck with its union sticker cozying up to my hybrid in the lot.
I sulked. Didn’t want to poison myself with morning news
nor did I feel like standing up to the elliptical equipment at the gym.
Walked on the fire trail behind my house several quail
scribbled up the hill right behind purple lupine
those golden wind poppies I tried to call them back
tried to take one last look before they disappeared.
But this has nothing to do with the quail or my two neighbors
more about wondering what my parents
if they’d managed to move from the tenement into that 22ndfloor
Co-op City in the northeast Bronx a tower of power the pols
redacted a borough memory blotted on Internet time
my sense of place is all over the place
everywhere a handle to dismantle and create.
Children’s book for middle-grade readers, ages 9-12, an urban environmental fantasy set at the edge of a condo development where we meet 10-year-old Leah who has been labeled as the school weirdo. Why? Because she talks to something that’s hidden inside her backpack. Purchase on Amazon. Entertaining for parents as well! If you love the book, please write a quick review. Thanks!