Great Owl Circle
1.
I had an uncle who was always so fun
And I learned later it was because he was bad
Or, maybe just wild. Maybe.
Anyway, the most fun
Was when he tossed my dad’s exercise ball
And we were on the swings
And I punted it up onto the deck during dinner
2.
There are mountains and tall buildings
And huge whales and all that
But the biggest, most impassable thing I know of
Is on Great Owl Circle in Virginia.
NO ONE has EVER ridden a bike to the top of that hill.
And no one ever will.
3.
There is a brick wall with a hole in it
For some reason it’s important.
My sister told me she did her math homework in there,
But I think that only happened once.
What I remember is not far from there,
a tree that I could actually climb
Or at least the first branch.
My best friend and I played Star Wars,
I was the Emperor and he was Darth Vader
(everyone knows the Emperor was in charge,
but in case you didn’t, he totally was)
Darth Vader went rogue. Just like in the movie.
4.
There is a stretch of sidewalk
Where I learned how to ride a bike
Next to a small hill
Where we used to sled in the snow
But really what I remember about that little hill
Is how long it took to climb up in the snow
That sled had to weigh 200 pounds
5.
The kid across the street was Christopher
Christopher something
I want to say Christopher Robin
But I feel like that’s from something else
Anyway
He was from the hundred acre woods and had a stuffed pooh bear and little pig and bounced around a lot singing yippee and would sometimes grow carrots and other times just mope like a donkey.
6.
One time.
It was Spring.
And the weather was beautiful.
And it was a school day.
And it was probably 7 am.
And my dad burst into the room and said
IT SNOWED! SCHOOL’S CANCELED!
It must have been April Fool’s.
I ran to the window and saw all the green green grass
And the floor fell out from under me
And I was inconsolable.
7.
There were many things that happened at our old house
But one that we talked about recently
Was the time a friend came over and just about tore down our tree after a ball got stuck in it
My dad was furious. We were trying to sell the house at that point.
So he took us to the park.
We called that park Park-in-a-park
And when we were little
We’d get ready for school as fast as we could
So we could go for just a few minutes
And we’d sit on the swings
And dad would sit behind the clear plastic bubble thing
And pretend he was a tv show
He is probably the best man ever in the world.
