Whenever someone says “No pressure but”, you know pressure: imminent

Granny said walk barefoot on the first day of May for good luck Papaw said my feet were too tender and it was true the gravel bit it dug in at first I hobbled and winced but when I made it to the pavement smooth, sun-warmed a prelude to summer I already felt lucky

you helped me find in my heart and in my mind30 poems, two floods, a paper boat, and a homemade costume.You walked with me, skipping over sidewalk cracks,comforting a weeping willow, laughing at a giver pushing a cart with a loose wheel.You led me to one green apple, one lone pine, three kindred spirits, and a garden…

Her name was Rennie. I called her Gran, my grandmother, my father’s mother,my best friend.She wore red lipstick and painted her nails. She loved Jesus, and diamonds,and my grandfather, and her two sons…and me.Every night, she whispered her prayers.She did not go to college, but she visited me at mine;she read everything all the time. She taught…

First, write your hurts on the paper of your heart.Fold, crease sharply, make a boat.Carry it in cupped hands; set it sailingin the burbling creek of the past.Should it stall in the shallowest part of you,use sharp sticks of memory and nudge it loose.Send it skimming over stones, wrongs washed smooth.It may round bends; if sobreak into a run. Keep it in sight.Cheer…

His fourth birthday, 2003,Spy Kids cake, Spy Kids plates, orange punch,color-coordinated balloons,Thumb Thumb action figures.His grandpa says, “What in the world?”eyeing the toys: thumb people in red jumpsuits.Black cardstock shoe prints,taped to our hardwood floors,a trail to follow, mystery to solve,scavenger hunt for pre-school spies,a treasure chest filled with treat bags.Guest of honor, freckle-faced,dressed in black and orange,just like…

I was a walker to and from school in Walkertownand, though I wasn’t one to brag, I thought the town belonged to me…or at least the little stretch from my yellow house,on the corner of Pear and Spring,to the red brick elementary school on School Street.Each morning, after breakfast, I leapt flat-footedfrom our front porch stoop, my belly full of cream…