The top bunk of the triple bunk bed I shared with my sisters
The oversized red plastic spoon I used to stick in my mouth that had a smiley face and hair painted on it
The 3 crockpots I gave away
The letter I typed to my brother on my grandma’s old typewriter
The book I made in 3rd grade about stuffed animals who came to life in a candy store
The memory of the boy’s face that kissed me in the swimming pool at drama camp
The ignorance of sun damage
The speckled leaf I stuck in a book and gave to Goodwill
The ridiculous amount of money I blew on gold hoop earrings to prove a point to the dismissive sales girl
The black and white of my childhood religion
The first day of summer vacation
The blank slate of tattoo-less skin
The jewelry box with all the little drawers I would fill with things and put on a high shelf and try to forget about so I could get it down later, when I’d forgotten what was in there
The place in my closet where I curled up with my stuffed animals and imagined I was on Noah’s ark
The broken blue tile I found on a path at Starved Rock
The pocket-sized leather Filofax I gleefully filled with crisp new calendar pages each December
The copy of Chronicles of a Death Foretold that I loaned to… someone
The copy of Empress of the Splendid Season that I borrowed from someone… then lost
The heart-shaped ring I discarded because I bent it swinging on the jungle bars
The box of negatives I kept of all the pictures I took with my first camera
The vinyl album Urban Chipmunks with Alvin performing a duet with Brenda Lee who sings, “Alvin, I don’t know what to say / You’re a chipmunk, I’m a lady / We don’t have much in common / I’m a country girl…”
…and my red and white striped record player
40 minutes on the el train
Notes passed in the hall between classes
Conversations free of suspicion
Suspicion justified as intuition
Swollen toes from pointe shoes
Ticket stubs from every concert I’ve ever attended
My 26 year-old butt
My 13 year-old dreams
Saturday, March 31, 2012
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