The house on Pleasant Avenue (for Aunt Linda)

you lived on pleasant avenue

and you had a toy robot

and the pictures on your walls

all had stories in them

and you

could tell them to us

you were like a new element

to me

Lindenium

made of movement

and laughter and energy

you had a chromatic harmonica

maracas and a wood block

a tambourine and it didn't seem

to matter how one shook it

it would be music

at Linda's

you would walk out to our car

when we had to leave

and say goodbye

the elms would sway above your eyes

looking through the open car window

riding away I would turn around

and look back

until I couldn't see you

waving from pleasant avenue.