Lindsey S. Frantz
Where Your Childhood Lived
If you stand in a place
where your childhood lived
you may feel lost.
Where once was a tree
now is a stump
and the yard feels so much smaller.
At the back of the field
there’s a stream where
a snake nearly bit your hand.
You wonder--
is it still there? Are you?
Pick mint and catch mud and crawdads.
Run ‘til sweat stings your eyes
and grass cuts your legs.
Drink water and eat apples and be
everyone you aren’t. Everyone, be.
Now,
sit and stand and grow up.
Feel the yard shrink around you
and wait
for morning
to come.
Lindsey S. Frantz lives in the sleepy, art-rich town of Berea, Kentucky with her husband, toddler son, dog, and cats. She works for Eastern Kentucky University as the MFA Specialist for their creative writing program, Bluegrass Writers Studio. She is also the managing editor of the literary journal Jelly Bucket and a yoga teacher. Her work has previously appeared in Paradigm, Aurora Literary Arts Journal, Main Street Rag’s Villains Anthology, Kentucky Her Story 2012, Ruminate Magazine, and Emerge Literary Journal. In her spare time, Lindsey knits, crochets, doodles, and sings silly songs to her son.
Where Your Childhood Lived
If you stand in a place
where your childhood lived
you may feel lost.
Where once was a tree
now is a stump
and the yard feels so much smaller.
At the back of the field
there’s a stream where
a snake nearly bit your hand.
You wonder--
is it still there? Are you?
Pick mint and catch mud and crawdads.
Run ‘til sweat stings your eyes
and grass cuts your legs.
Drink water and eat apples and be
everyone you aren’t. Everyone, be.
Now,
sit and stand and grow up.
Feel the yard shrink around you
and wait
for morning
to come.
Lindsey S. Frantz lives in the sleepy, art-rich town of Berea, Kentucky with her husband, toddler son, dog, and cats. She works for Eastern Kentucky University as the MFA Specialist for their creative writing program, Bluegrass Writers Studio. She is also the managing editor of the literary journal Jelly Bucket and a yoga teacher. Her work has previously appeared in Paradigm, Aurora Literary Arts Journal, Main Street Rag’s Villains Anthology, Kentucky Her Story 2012, Ruminate Magazine, and Emerge Literary Journal. In her spare time, Lindsey knits, crochets, doodles, and sings silly songs to her son.