Memory 1 Week 8

In his Oscars acceptance speech,
Graham Moore writes about being weird
and later, says there's a part of him that's Chicago,
and Chicago "just wants everyone to like him
and hates conflict and hates yelling
and wants everyone to get along and be nice."
I don't think I heard a single person yell
in the suburbs of Chicago. Instead,
a lot of children running
through freshly tarred driveways
and narrowly missing telephone poles
while sledding. My neighbor, a five year old
girl with a last name that sounds like a pasta,
jumped on the igloo on my front lawn
because she was bored. I, and my sister,
spent six hours, two rounds of shoveling,
and four pairs of gloves building
that three tunneled house.
My mother brought us bags of carrots
and graham crackers with juice boxes.
I was thirteen.