A Hundred Acres of Childhood

Pamela Zimmerman

Fog on the horizon;
trees against Ontario
far across a plowed field
   of soft cool earth.
One small child saw their leaves
and thought they made a castle;
  that moment of wonder
was a whole book’s worth.

Sedges stood overhead
lofty, reedy, sheltering
half across that plowed field
  in warm noon haze.
Purple alfalfa swathes
rustled swift over bare feet
pounding t’ward wilderness:
thus the rambler’s ways.

A swamp or a new world?
Little waters, wild berries—
between rushes, pathways
    beneath one tree.
Avid bright tousle-tops
ran joyfully, carefully
giving wide berth toward
   a palace of bees.

Windy stands of dogwood-
quiet blizzards and little
white wings, yellow petals
  on dark, damp ground.
Back through the alfalfa
astride a small horsefellow
and a pony, black-spotted,
  not yet homeward bound.

  Wild fencerow apple trees-
a long walk through goldenrod.
       Joanna in gingham
       and sky blue, blue:
languid hooves on dry earth
white mushrooms on a black log
   high tree seats and teepees-
      tall stories, all true.

Gray Emerald, black Shell,
  blueberries, blue irises,
pudding on wood railing;
  hawthornes and Mays.
       A ship in a cellar;
less a farm, more a country;
a wide land, a map’s worth,
where they spent those days.

Pamela Zimmerman minored in creative writing as an undergraduate at EIU. She will be continuing her studies in that area when she starts her Master's in Creative Writing this fall, also at EIU. Her writing has been previously published in the Vehicle, both in 2023 and 2024, and last year she was honored to be the recipient of the Winnie Davis Neely Award. In 2024, she was also awarded by The James Jones Fund for the Study of the Experience of War in History, Literature, Theatre, Film, and Music, for a short story set in WWI.