here's a picture
in orange organza drinking my "orangina"
in an orange grove it could have been that way
in a garish color ad in National Geographic
from the 1950s, but really it's just Orange Crush
at summer camp I'm drinking
from hoarded quarters and it's not even cold.
and I miss home in Little Rock
where we only drink colas on ice
and are careful to eat an apple
a day plus a Hershey bar.
and we watch Disney's Wonderful
World of Color fervently with
my grandparents on Sunday nights-
believing in living colour extravagantly
on a black and white tv
Tomorrow Land's one chocolate square at a time-
on metal tv tables whLte and gold
a feast is spread:
white bread with butter, chicken pie
pure salad of lettuce and tomato...
tonight I'm missing the repeat episode
of the life of Beethoven and think
of Moonlight Sonata and want to cry.
I never dreamed the Arkansas
river was so yellow.
and we hate swimming, my
sister and I to the point of
mortal dread. we pray
to get out of it, earnestly, in the woods
behind our cabins the very first night and
swimming lessons cease!
it rains for two weeks straight
at Camp Miramechee, lovely
lovely rain and we work on crafts,
(much less scary), star-laden
nature walks through ferny rain-quenched
trails when day followed sunburned day and
we read Little Lulu comic books by moonlight-
fresh newsprint, block by block
happy, familiar neighborhood (almost) at last...
and that's how
I learned that God hears
what we say.
mary angela douglas 5 november 2013
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