Theme Friday: Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time
West Putnam was
a brand new building
of brick and blue
carnival cakewalks
confetti on the floor
Mr. Williams waltzing
Mrs. Collins at the keys
Miss Mary, Mrs. Liggett
Hazel/Bessie/Myrtle/Joan
(lunches like food from your
grandma’s house-
they loved us like that).
Once upon a time
was West Putnam
who stands still
with empty halls
ceilings on the floor
Milk carton caskets
with turtle bones
buried at playground’s edge.
Once upon a time
West Putnam
was/is/was always
US.
***
Christine and Annie (who suggested this week’s theme) take on Once Upon A Time.
Drowned Woman;Hot Sky 
August 13, 2010 at 03:03
[…] Once upon a time, Annie wrote a fairytale… And clancyjane lived happily ever after… […]
August 13, 2010 at 03:06
[…] and Clancy’s once upon a time… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Fire – Theme FridayThe […]
August 13, 2010 at 08:06
once upon a time a reunion was made for the forgotten building called west putnam. and once upone a time it was realized it wasn’t the building that was corroding in the wind that made it but the wonderful people that became a family inside!!
August 13, 2010 at 17:41
We needed that reunion, didn’t we? Why on earth did we wait so long. We did become a family inside that building. I really like the way you said that.
August 13, 2010 at 10:48
Your gift, clancyjane, is putting the sense of person within the sense of place. Well done!
August 13, 2010 at 17:42
Thank you, Julia. What a beautiful compliment.
August 13, 2010 at 12:06
Hey Clancy,
I love your style of cobbling words together – it makes the reader feel familiar and a part of the piece immediately. I had a very similar once upon a time and you took there with this. Lovely.
Annie
August 13, 2010 at 17:44
Thank you, Annie. I’d love to read your Once Upon A Time that was similar. I’m in awe again this week at how different the prompt was interpreted between us, and how much I liked the two of yours.
August 13, 2010 at 13:54
I adore milk carton caskets. And the turtle bones. Well, everything actually. I agree with Julia and Annie, in that your words have hands that gently grasp those of the reader- Here, let me show you.
Your writing, like in this piece, is gracious and hospitable. It feels like you’ve written everyone’s experience, even if the reader has not had the experience. Does that make sense?
Simply- you know your heart. You know the heart. And you know the hearts of others. You write them skillfully.
August 13, 2010 at 18:01
Tearful.
It does make sense. I see that in the raw wounds you write us, and in the way you language that which we have no words for.
We write so differently, but if we have that one thing in common, it surpasses my most farflung hopes.
What you’ve said here touches me in a way I can’t tell you.
August 13, 2010 at 23:18
For a time,
while reading my memories from my-but-not-quite mouth and the remarkably eloquent/elegant responses,
I’ve forgotten–which is no easy feat with such obsessions–Nelle & Alice & the favorite and its commentaries.
PRICELESS past. PRICELESS honoring of it with these words.
THANK YOU All