My Childhood Heaven

Heaven is a sycamore tree in the middle of a wash with an old swing rope, it’s running with my sister bare foot in cut off shorts and the suns shining warm rays on the bridge of my nose and top of my lip, it’s the sound of laughter tickling the air and the warm breeze bending the tall yellow grass and slapping the giant sycamore leaves, it’s the cackle of the chickens and a black and white dog barking at a skinny little red haired boy on the hill. It is the smell of old black walnut trees, sun licked river rocks, and pinto beans cooking slowly on the stove that come from a faded green A Frame house on a drift of wind. It’s tree lizards, cow tanks, water snakes, my father’s old Pontiac on blocks, a brick fire place, a big grey cat named Thomas, Mom and Dad dancing in the kitchen, and knowing that each day will be the same.