Confessional Media Map 1 Backyard

Whenever our neighbor Vic would mow his lawn, There was once a swing set here. And I loved to swing, my dog Helga would bark at him. We had Thanksgiving diners with his family every year But the whole set tipped out of the grass back then and he would say, when you swung too high; “I don’t know why that dog doesn’t like me.”

so my Dad took it out. Years later he stopped mowing and came over to the fence. Later my brother built an igloo there, She wagged her tail and so he gave her some pets. That’s all she wanted. with a long snow tunnel. It was too cold to stay inside but our dog, Tana,

loved to scuttle to the top There was once a turntable on this bookshelf. For Christmas and look out over her kingdom. one year I bought my dad the Alicia Bridges single, “I Love the Nightlife.” I hung a heart-shaped necklace hooked on the corner He loved it and played it over and over again. His mother said We lived under this tree of the tall, wooden fence. he did that as a kid with that gory Tex Ritter record “Blood on when we were pirates. the Saddle.” She said it drove them nuts. It was an offering to the sky for a romantic life. I realized I did that too, played a song over and over again. The next day I went outside and it was gone.

…my mother would have Where my Dad to say, “Everybody be Fenced-in patio quiet; Mary wants to worked on cars Crabapple tree say something.” And Grandma made then what I said would jam from. always sound dumb. By high school, I finally inherited When we moved an old stereo with a cassette deck, here there was Den Christmas presents were hidden here my grandmother’s old color TV

My sunbathing towel an intercom/ My Dad stopped Books but I never looked. and, (I was spoiled), a new VCR. I went out at noon radio system in bedtime reading Paul, Lisa and I would stay up all night every room. forever (in the Closet slathered in baby oil. It broke pretty watching MTV. They liked The Cure, My skin resisted any tanning fast but not Kitchen middle of Heidi) Parent’s Howard Jones and the Thompson Twins. because or burning. before I heard Bedroom Whenever I hit record, the VCR At the kitchen I, Claudius was I read Gone with the Wind here. “Half Breed” table, we argued would make a slow, wheezing sound playing on it one on TV. about grammar Fireplace for 5 whole seconds and we always missed day in the and Clint Eastwood kitchen. movies and I was Every Saturday: the beginning of our favorite videos. At seven years old I was spanked here Loony Tunes and Master It doesn’t seem like much now, always talked over Bath by my mother on our first day in this house by my brothers… Scooby Doo while but it was pretty upsetting then. TV Books for following the movers around my parents slept in. and telling them my life story. X Stairs I had a People Magazine subscription. My One day the issue came when Karen Carpenter died. Closets Bedroom Driveway I threw it in the closet and wouldn’t look at it for years.

Dining Room Stereo Stereo I wrote poems Piano Bath TV Garage under this window Living Room Closet Closet because there was a heat vent Closet there X Andrew’s When I was 8, I came to this room to read Key Bedroom Randy’s my brother’s Mad Magazines. Stereo You might not think this is a poem. Where my Dad Bedroom Later in the mid-80s, when the stereo came, And maybe you’re right. invented a bee suit Porch Stereo I made mix tapes here for aerobics. In fact, it wanted to be an essay. and chased the bees. I remember listening to Barry Manilow’s If I Should Love Again and Olivia Newton John. I had to fight to keep it small. It was also where I discovered Our dog Tana broke out these windows my brother’s three Babys albums The floorplan was recreated trying to protect me from an insurance salesman. in a stack by the door.` Andrew’s room was decorated with model airplanes. with the assistance of my Dad We were home alone and I was in the basement Randy had a poster of Jennifer Beals from Flashdance. who fixed up the basement; dancing to The Pointer Sisters on the radio. so he remembers My mom nixed the Farrah Fawcett poster as “too risqué.” where the walls When I was 8, Randy gave me a crash course on the Beatles here. were. I spent most of my childhood, age seven to eleven, This was for a show-and-tell for music class in the “Living Room” with the large phonograph there, at my new school. I don’t think I fooled anybody but Randy was happy for two minutes that I wasn’t listening a piece of furniture with a broken lid. After diner, to Beatles covers sung by Sonny & Cher. I would listen to records in the dark, with only the outside street-lamp lighting the room: In 1979, when my older cousin Erin came to visit Sonny & Cher and whatever was in the abandoned we bounced up and down on Randy’s trundle bed stacks my parents had no time for, whenever Rupert Holmes, Cliff Richard or Blondie like that Paul Mauriat album with the naked, came on his stereo radio. painted lady, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, all the Disney and Marlo Thomas albums we had. When my brothers left for college, this stereo moved Later I brought home Barry Manilow records from Randy’s room to Andrew’s room for some reason. from the library. I acted out all the songs It had a turntable and a slot for 8-Tracks. except for the love songs which were emoted They left all their records behind from the piano bench and a broken jump rope handle. but the 8-tracks were gone by then. While I was doing a particularly dramatic rendition There was once a dying bird here, hit by a car. It would freak out whenever a car drove near it. of Cher’s “Love and Pain” (1979) , one of my brothers I called my grandmother on the phone, hid behind the upright piano and grabbed my legs. but she said there was nothing I could do. So I used the mail to pick it up and move it to the grass. Front Yard It died right after that. I wrote a poem about it.