Assignment: Create an image: a negative and a positive
The positive: Anna, just three; happy to be with me, in Squaw Valley Park.
The negative: Anna, just three; frightened as she could be, because of me.
Anna, my sweet Anna,
Do you remember our troll
Who lived under the bridge in the park
Where you and I spent happy hours
When you were very young?
This morning, as early as eight at best,
When the sun still hugged horizon's crest
Under a sky yet tinged with dark,
I walked through our special park
And thought of you.
I passed by the bridge we used to cross,
Remembering how you would scurry
As fast as your little legs could hurry
Lest the troll beneath, disturbed from sleep,
Should toss us into the waters of the creek.
I really thought that you knew
The story I had fabricated wasn't true.
But when you were older you said
You used to tremble with dread,
Thinking the troll real.
Today a closed-for-repairs sign
Bars the bridge we considered yours and mine,
And the rickity bridge of our private lore,
Replaced by a newer, sturdier span,
Will be no more.
So forgive me, my sweet Anna.
I thought of you today
And of the hours we shared.
I hadn't meant to make you scared.