We/Memorial (Poem)

Tammy T. Stone in Kyoto.

Blue carpets like the sea Learning how to braid Using hair ribbons and The leg of a chair My mother taught me She let me help her make French toast When I was too sick To go to my best friend’s birthday party I was inconsolable until she consoled me My sister’s room seventies brown and orange With a toy horse in the corner She would jump up and down On the coiled springs Smiling big Bubbly and reaching out to the whole world Once I walked by as she bounced on the horse Her hair flying up She-demon of day She terrified me Sunday family night with Disney movies Living room lit by the phosphorescence of the TV screen Sitting on chairs we squeezed together A new configuration We felt like fairy tale princesses Seduced by the late hour, giddy We must have purred like cats do When strong arms hold gently and massage Nothing was better

Except the living room floor And our tent made from pink and yellow blankets Ready made to receive the room’s warm incandescence In just the right amount Tucked under coffee table legs Hung from ceiling lights Crawling through to sit on the soft blanketed floor Pillows for chairs And another treat Pizza dinner No interruptions And sweet dessert. This was where I was a child and I never liked sleeping with my teddy bears But had them all around me.

My Street Japan. Day 39.

My Street Japan. DAY 30. Tammy T. Stone

I call this, “Everything looks better at night.”

I also want to point out that precisely one day after Halloween (a holiday far from indigenous to Japan) is over, the Christmas (another holiday not indigenous to Japan) decorations go up, here, at the barbers!

Long live celebration!