Raised By Everyone
When I was a child everyone’s mother on my block corrected me.
Every adult in the neighborhood watched me vigilantly, carefully.
Watching for me to do something wrong,
So they could call my mother.
On the way to school I sometimes took a risk,
Knowing full well I’d get a spanking when I got home.
Sometimes it was worth it.
On a daily basis, I was called to a variety of porches to apologize.
This was the 60’s
In a small Iowa town.
It’s the way it was.
None of us questioned it.
One Wednesday Mr. Joe
Came out on his porch
And yelled, “If you don’t stop dawdling,
You’ll be late for the bell!”
We did not know what dawdling was,
But my sister and I ran to school,
Sliding into our desk seats seconds
Before the bell rang.
Mr. Joe had saved us from
Staying after school with the teacher.
We started waving at him every day after that.
“We are going to play hooky” I told my twin sister one fine day.
We were on our way back to second grade, after a hot bowl of
Tomato soup with a zillion crackers, and an ice cold milk I refused
To drink because I hate milk.
When Mom’s car pulled up
My blood ran cold.
My sister started screaming and
Ran right to her.
I was much more difficult to catch.
Neighbors ran out to tell her where
I was hiding every fifteen feet.
I got switched all the way
Back to school,
And decided I hated
Neighbors.
No child could have been
Snatched by a stranger
In my home town in
The 60’s.
They would have had him
Down on the ground under
A sea of knees before
He finished his first
Sentence to us kids.
We were loved, protected, and raised by everybody.
Watched as closely as caramel candy at Christmas time.
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