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A Happy Childhood
Babies do not want to hear about babies;
they like to be told of giants and castles. ...
It turns out you are the story of your childhood
and youre under constant revision,
like a lonely folktale whose invisible folks
are all the selves youve been, lifelong,
shadows in fog, grey glimmers at dusk.
And each of these selves had a childhood
it traded for love and grudged to give away,
now lost irretrievably, in storage
like a set of dishes from which no food,
no Cream of Wheat, no rabbit in mustard
sauce, nor even a single raspberry,
can be eaten until the afterlife,
which is only childhood in its last
disguise, all radiance or all humiliation,
and so it is forfeit a final time. ...
Theres no truth about your childhood,
though theres a story, yours to tend,
like a fire or garden. ...
Who knows if hes happy or not?
Approximate Word count = 1219
Approximate Pages = 4.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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