Childhood Memories

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for a thousand nights
falling asleep to Daddy’s guitar,
waking up to the sound of Mommy opening
the heavy curtains in the living room,
curtains she made.

Blessed are You
for frozen banana cream on warm cornbread,
buckets of succulent, sugary blackberries,
and the midday vegetable juice
I sometimes poured out
between the porch boards.

Blessed are You,
Lord our God,
King of the Universe,
for walks up Corn Creek Road,
one litter each of puppies and kittens,
rides in the green cart piled with dry cut grass,
the certainty of my parents’ faithfulness
to life and to each other,
under it all like bedrock.