The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: MOVING (poem)

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="font-style: normal;">For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Butterfly-Hour... BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="231" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pbJRbgZiKH..." width="213" /></a>I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on <a href="https://irenelatham.blogspot.com/p/th... Butterfly Hours</a> tab above. </span></span><br /><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";">This month's prompts include:</span><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial";"> </span><i style="font-family: roboto, arial;">mail, moon, mouse, moving, museum, music, music lesson, name, necklace, neighbor, nightgown.</i><br /><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></b><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">MOVING</span></span></span></span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Our family moved A LOT. The year I turned 14 my father decided (or someone decided for him) that it was time to change jobs – a decision that would require my 9</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;">^{<span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">th</span></span></span></span>}</span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">move. (My father worked in hospital administration, and due to politics and personality conflicts and power grabs, those jobs are notoriously short-lived.) It came down to two possibilities: Birmingham, Alabama or Bangor, Maine. Although what I really wanted was to stay in Folsom where I was (at-last!) secure (I even arranged with a friend's family for me to live with them, but of course my parents didn't go for that!), I was rooting for Maine. (Like my father, I have an appreciation and fascination for extreme locations.) But, for whatever reasons, the decision was made for Birmingham. And so my life was made – or, so I made my life. I don't have any regrets, of course. I love my life. But I do wonder: </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">who might I have become if our family had moved instead to Maine?</span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I think I'll write a book about it. :)</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Moving Day</span></span></span></span></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mama packs</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">us into the van</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as Papa's camera</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">clicks one last picture </span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of the house –</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">say goodbye,</span></span></span></span></i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mama instructs.</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But how do you</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">say goodbye</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to the sky?</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif , "arial";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">- Irene Latham</span></span></span></span></i></div><br />