BY VINCENT PUZICK I remember the smell of toast. I was in the middle of my morning minutes of Transcendental Meditation when my mother got home from her graveyard shift at the hospital.
Tag: childhood
The River Cabin
BY CAITE MCNEIL Making the decision to move back to Maine wasn't easy for a mother who wanted her daughter to love her home as much as she does.
Katie Bowers – Even Though I Am Weary of Church Pews, She Is Not
Written during the peak of the pandemic, Katie Bowers' poem touches on the challenges of faith and belief, parenting and childhood.
Kelly Joslyn – Before the Hunt
Kelly Joslyn's quiet and simple poem Before the Hunt is a childhood reminiscence of her father. The child's early-morning attentiveness to her father extends to the dim lighting and the smell of the tangerine, like looking at an old Polaroid of something from childhood.
M. Christine Benner Dixon – Portrait of Dad at the Cutting Board
M. Christine Benner Dixon's poem is an intimate portrait of her father, remembered from childhood.
Sanctuary
BY KENT JACOBSON A baseball field was a sanctuary for a small community of boys who were surrounded by angry fathers they were too young to understand.
Leaving
BY MICHELLE NICHOLAYSEN When I left the Seventh-day Adventists, I thought I could keep the love and forget the wrath.
A Boy and His Woodland Friends: Charles Mackesy’s Heartwarming Tale of Discovery
Charlie Mackesy's short graphic novel follows a young boy who connects with a wise horse and a mole, and a more reticent fox.
Vanessa Escobar – Why I Can’t Eat My Grandmother’s Fried Liver and Onions
Vanessa Escobar: "I was always conflicted growing up. But I think in my resistance I missed some things. My grandmother wasn't just being a dutiful wife, she was showing her love."
Dad Too Late
BY KENT JACOBSON My father clomped through life with boots—“Your mother will turn you into a softy”— and died early.