By: Ariel Lee
You are standing underneath
the willow tree. You are looking down
a driveway at a house that used to be.
The tree’s boughs are a great hoop skirt
that conceals a marvelous playhouse- a
room with vaulted ceilings that shiver
in the wind and whisper to the children
inside. Next to the tree there is a foundation. The foundation is a skeleton
of the house that the grandmother’s
grandparents built. The foundation is
off-limits to children. It isn’t safe. You
shouldn’t climb on it. There are dogs
and cats. Most of them are nice and will
want a scratch. There are coops, there
are chickens, turkeys, geese. There is a
sister who might tell you that the turkeys will give you a kiss if you poke a
finger through the wire fencing. Don’t
believe her- the turkeys will bite. There
is a great garden in the back. There are
rolly-pollies and centipedes. There is
a porch. The porch has a can-crusher.
There is a grandmother who is almost
finished with her Pepsi and the children
will bicker over whose turn it is to take
the can and crush it. The grandmother
will give the children a popsicle if they
ask. The grandmother is gentle and
warm. The grandmother doesn’t like to
go to town. The grandmother likes the
Maid-O-Clover drive-thru. She goes
there to buy milk so she won’t have to go
inside a store. The grandmother will buy
the children a scoop of bubblegum ice
cream, too. The grandmother will stop
by the nursery to buy dying plants. (The
grandmother had a green thumb, they
say.) The grandmother has an incubator
in her bedroom that she uses to rescue
birds. (The grandmother had a gift with
animals, they say.) The grandmother
will let the children sleep in her bed if
they are scared. (They say the children
were her whole world.)