315 HIGH STREET. By Chani Zwibel

Was a move up for us, 

out of the hollow

 and into a housing plan. 

Land there once made up Mom’s ancestral inheritance, 

once Howell Farm, when owned by Colonel Phillip

 who fought in the American Revolution.

  Thus, the hilly area of cul-de-sacs 

and cutesy street names like Dennis and Nancy 

was called Howell Plan; 

The Howell Brothers pieced up

 the family farm 

to build houses

 after the boys came home 

from WWII (The Big One).

The building boom was on,

 and they needed to settle down with their wives

 and have babies 

to send to school at Elizabeth Forward High.

I was 13 going on 14,

 and angry often, depressed more, 

but left alone found diversion. 

Rode my bicycle around the block, 

suburbia’s grey-green lattice, 

noticing trees with rounded tufts

 like fuzzy pigtail buns on a Dr. Seuss-like creature,

those weird trees were portals

 to an illustrated world just next door to this one.

Imagination a-fire, I pedaled,

 the vaguely sweet, like iced tea, earthy blend

 of cut-grass and pool chlorine, 

summer in the haze rising off the pavement, 

summer in the blue shimmer of distant mountains, 

viewed from our new back porch, 

summer in the fabric of the wide-leg, cut-off jean shorts 

covering skinny, tanned, young legs.

Chani Zwibel is the author of Cave Dreams to Star Portals. She is an associate editor with Madness Muse Press. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but now dwells in Marietta, Georgia, with her husband and their dog. She co-hosts an open mic night called Poetry and Palette once a month at The Good Acting Studio in Marietta.