my sister went to morning kindergarten
in an emergency one day our mom asked if
patsy could go in the afternoon pat told me
about it many years later “I loved kindergarten
the toys, the things to draw on, being all on my
own, but that day I came through the door into
a sea of unfamiliarity a crowd of strange children
the chairs and tables were the same but the sun
came in different the shadows were different the
milkman with our milk cartons was different even
the teacher seemed different nobody spoke to me
I shrank into the farthest corner of the room made
little piles of sand in the sandbox and patted them
down – it was my first intimation that same things
– the things you counted on – could be different.”
This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2017.
