Prairie Street, the big tree out front with the Mama Swing
Those years my parents pushed me on the wobbly seat
I couldn’t tell you all the stories that I made up
Underneath that tree
Imaginary friends that I wanted to believe
But I never did
I looked for magic and when I didn’t find it
I made up my own
There are chapters at the edges of my mind
Say Mama Swing and I am a child
Before my childhood memories really began
Say Mama Swing and there’s a whole story
Of who I am, deep beneath everything that happens after
The Mama Swing is in the woods behind my parents’ house
Decades away, hundreds of miles north from that big tree on Prairie Street
I push my cousins back and forth
They tell me stories
Eighteen times they skipped that stone
The ramparts of their sandcastle
When the mosquitos bite, we retreat
With Love,
Natalie