His driveway sloped

into the ground, deep enough for two third graders to just barely

on tippi toes and noses pointed high

to peek over the edge

Like spies

Like hunters

Like prey

And there was a storm

And his trampoline, usually touting leaves shattered into dust by the weight 

of our tiny bodies launching ourselves into the air

Now flipped by the mercy of the wind

into the driveway

And it was Narnia

A shade and a base and a slide all in one

A distraction

From the place we lived and the people we were

And the fathers we didn't know were coming home 

And the rock wall

Sharp and turbulent, a mile long challenge

Where my sister fell and split her lip

And it was an adventure for us

But when she cried my mother worried

All alone 

Thinking of worse wounds on the other side of the world

And there was a fox

That we chased through the forest, great trackers of old

Survivors of the worst that mother earth conceived

And if our adventure would have scarred us

We would have screamed

But no one would have heard us

They had bigger pains to fear

I fell off a roof once

I laughed

It felt like Narnia