Childhood Time-lapse

Preface: I moved away from Washington when I was 10 years old and resided in four other locations before returning at age 29. This situation combined with my emotional attachment to the following quote laid the foundation for my poem of experiencing the childhood I never had.

“We laughed and laughed, together and separately, out loud and silently, we were determined to ignore whatever needed to be ignored, to build a new world from nothing if nothing in our world could be salvaged, it was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all.” --Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Childhood Time-lapse

I’ve always admired nostalgic notions in movies, songs, or plays…

not because I related

youthful tingles seemed much less stone jaded

I simply appreciated those idealistic ways.

I was never bitter about choice or direction,

Always overly curious, at a revolving intersection

1 out of 4 ways must mold the clay of my yellow brick words I lay so seriously mysterious:

Missing out on a wonderland of past troubles,

similar enlightenment, pieces of enchantment, life in a bubble?

It wasn’t Deja vu on this timeless day

Everything sworn to make sense of it in some way.

“A day during which I lived my life and didn’t think about my life at all.“

Quoting another’s words,

sharing knowledge can be a dangerous thing

Hope can spread painted wildfires with more envy than a patriotic, “freedom ring!”

I think I’ll vow to be that kind of person

yet planning to not try only caused it to worsen.

More to be proud of her

She could have died in there

Overtime—steady, slow—mountain fine— rhyme, regrow

Wtf is yolo?

explore solo unknown as disguised weird loner.

I kept joking we were 12 years of age

on a spontaneous Munchies Mondaze

An emerald euphoria painted memory hills

Not in Kansas—Wizard of Oz shrills

Getting nowhere fast, making moments last

Acknowledging no travel wasted

but a full flavored plate tasted.

It could have been my black Adidas or hiding our massive consumption,

following my ghostly childhood into the forest

or not hiding behind such a surreal reintroduction

But it seemed to be still and moving and it was lagom.*

Not having to choose one or the other

Stray from home, wander the world, backwards runner

classic brainwash misconception spoof

don’t worry, it’s only standard post travel blues.

Time mended, mind bending

conversations about nothing in a common language

but with a flow of old souls playing whatever role with extra baggage.

Kyle transformed into Vince Vaughn for a bit

unaware of Robbie, real life, or how to quit

uncanny at channeling pure talent and dreams

blowing my mind into laughing realms to unwind

A day in the life of this wild child

My adolescent playground map laid out

no longer outcast in exile

But suddenly, here—home,

where x marks old, x marks new and x marks maybe for a while.

In movie time,

no one remembered their lines

no one remembered their lives.

*lagom: a Swedish word meaning not too little, not too much, just right.