Anamnesis
   {A Sudden Recollection of My Youth}			

I remember
	      sandy golden summers of Cape Cod
	      and that one day walking home from the beach
	      stopping at the point of the compound
I remember
	      a barge sinking in the channel: 
	      the two tough tugboats straining to rescue it
	      then suddenly police cars everywhere
      we were told to leave
I remember
	      my mom later telling me 
      that was the day Bobby Kennedy was killed
I remember
	      toy dinosaurs and green plastic soldiers
	      in the dug-out trunk of a tree
I remember
	      sun-drenched Saturdays and sweaty baseball games
	      and hamburgers and milkshakes afterwards
	      at a diner called the Kettle-Ho'.
I remember
	      riding my bike back home
	      [my paper route done]
	      holding my head down and racing hard
	      through a buzzing cloud of street-leaping cicadas
I remember
	      watching a man walk on the moon
	      then jump ten feet in the air
	      like a child with magic springs in his legs
I remember
	      the president on television
	      all jowls and tears and tired eyes
	      telling me [asking me to believe?]
      he was not a crook
And I remember
	      	  when the war that was not a war
  was finally over
  our troops are coming home, they said
I remember 
		  there was no parade

						M. Ricciardi

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