summer, 1984 (my twelfth year)

[71degrees]

summer, 1984 (my twelfth year)


Sometimes,
I pretend my ceiling is the night sky,
that the broken light fixture is the moon
surrounded by thousands of silver stars.

At night,
the grumbling of my stomach doesn't end.
There is never enough of the bland cheese
or powdered milk we get from the old church.

Yesterday,
I asked my mother if we were poor folk.
She smiled, shook her head no and continued
to patch holes in my jeans that had no knees.

Tonight,
Dad says that I can sleep out back under the stars.
I pretend the night sky is my ceiling,
that the moon is a brand new and bright light.

This made sense to me except for the last stanza and the time reference. Dad "says" that I can sleep out...indicates to me that it hasn't happened yet, they are talking about it but in the next line you are there. I think grammatically, this is probably correct, but it just sounds off to me somehow. Another nit might be the detail about "no knees...a big much maybe? I do like the juxaposition of the pretend ceilings. The poem is real to me. A solid read and message.