TrainWrite

MAX, part 1

by Christopher Oie Keller

The earliest memory
is my mother’s friend
Cathleen (the name
always sounding odd)
and her daughter – a cute
thing faded with
time. The next,

my aunt, but now
that I write it,
it feels like a false
memory, so my third

is my parents,
mom laughing at dad
pushing her feet back with his,
asking, as if a great transgression had been made,
“Will you please keep your shoes
behind the safety line, please?”

And now this story
is just what my girlfriend’s
family wanted as evidence
for a description of my father:

acting autistic on MAX,
but all I remembered
was a grade school ice cream social –
I must’ve lost my train of thought.

Christopher Oie Keller earned his Master’s from Western Oregon University. A former Victoria’s Secret supervisor, he now guest teaches at Fir Ridge, an alternative school in Portland. His work has appeared in Gloom Cupboard, The Portland Alliance, The Northwest Passage, and Pointed Circle Magazine. He hopes you say hello to a stranger today.

Notes

  1. Christopher Oie Keller submitted this to trainwrite
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