anomaly nest

 A single nectarine was a dollar,

A bag of cherries put me back

2.38, put me back to nostalgia 

We'd drive to Yakima often me alone 

Load the truck or cadillac trunk

Pull the trailer our hybrid  full with produce

Boxes of nectarines were $5, get 20 boxes

They'd live in our basement until processed 

Cut, pitted, mixed with a sugar in huge stainless bowls, frozen in deep freeze

Tomatoes, $8 a box that's 25 lbs

They'd simmer for days, reducing

On our Vulcan with a hood vent fan

Onions, $6 for 50 lb

A few boxes of apples,

Eat them fresh they'll last months

Especially there in the cool basement cement

A dehydrator made nectarine jerky

Or dried Roma's there in our sunroom

Next to kitchen #1

There were two

Big fridge, smaller fridge, two deep freezes

One behind the house in the pioneer-days 

Stone walled room built into hillside,

Above that the girls swingset, wading pool, 

Strawberry beds of mulch 

For awhile where our ducks lived 

The second story to our Queen Anne Victorian 

Third if counting the basement which was

Street level, our bedroom with separate 

Shower, the girls room and playroom, the claw foot tub, there's 3 rooms plus ours and bathroom, 

That hallway led to a widows walk 

Above the front door entrance 

I repainted the spindles 

Repainted the entire 4 story house actually

40 foot ladder from street level

There was an art gallery in our living room, 

Oak floors, ten foot ceilings

Ceiling fans for all seasons

5 bathrooms for 6 bedrooms

Our girls went to elementary school there 

After the Johnny Jump-up in the sunroom,

After the spa got sold

Next to the redwood deck and 60 foot mural

You can't take with you

But a photo folds nice

And the fruit stores good if you learn how

And the rivers just near so dust off 

It's summer, cherries $1 buck a lb

Take them to waterfront park

Wade, dodge the goose poop

Barges head towards the Dalles dam licks

That wasn't there 

When Anomaly was built

When the widows walk was practical

I'll put a pot pie and apple pie in the oven

Get some coal from out back

I see the ship 

Spindles same keep a tyke from

Blowing overboard