Google Maps is quite the tool. Just last week I perused my childhood home noting it was bluer than it’d been. The new family had painted it a deeper version of th colour n attached a basketball hoop to the garage.
My sister used to swing herself silly in the backyard. The play structure was still there which was a bit strange n hard to accommodate. Our family basically fell apart when I was twenty one took me another eon to rejoin it. Now we all see each other at Christmas but it was in this blue house we were a nucleus for better or for worse.
An at different times in my life since I’ve thought it was either but now thank God it’s better definitely for the better. Christmases by myself typically weren’t celebrated the holiday didn’t exist but now it does again. It’s good to be one’s own human being but still have a sibling n a mom n dad.
Then of course my dog now long gone had his house just outside that ol back door he don’t go in there no more he uses the door in the clouds instead. N the cats faded away also one by one. The old orange mouser was the last to go no wonder he was the toughest lil tabby you ever seen. He definitely thought he was an actual tiger not just the same colour but a big cat for real.
When I first went away to undergrad I came home specifically to carry out my comic book collection I’d deposited in them long mine shafts of boxes. I just hoisted em on my shoulders cause I wouldn’t leave one ounce of my youth there in my insistence on independence. Mom said I coulda left em they didn’t mind but I was dead set on being my own man.
Cause trust me. You can’t actually leave without descending down the cavern of your history to clean out every corner. Case in point: digging around in Mom’s cold storage I found him Gordon the Gorilla from my infancy all those years ago and she still had him as an Ontario room n boarder.
I brought im to Vancouver now he’s happy to be home. With his boy grown. N I sure like to have him here. The West Coast is the future but the East Coast established the atmosphere.
Home’s a deeper version of them colours put together in the enclave of Fate. I’m so glad it weren’t too late to look my folks up n say hey it’s your son talkin after all this time.