Growing up
there was this wonderful place
called “Kid Town”
Kid Town was a park
located in both Crescent City
and Brookings
It wasn’t always there,
the park was built in the 90’s
first in Brookings,
then in Crescent City
I always went to the one in Brookings
because that’s where my mother’s family lived
and my mother’s family liked to do normal things
like take me to parks

In Crescent City, with my Dad,
we were likely to be tromping through strangers
backyards looking for edible mushrooms,
plastic bags wrapped around our feet
or, browsing grave’s at the graveyard for recreation

At Kid Town there were children,
And though I didn’t go near them, it was
healthy to be in their presence
You must be thinking,
this girl acts like was raised up under a rock!
Well,
if I hadn’t gone to Kid Town this one day,
I might still be wearing a training bra

I was probably 11 years old
Barely
I hadn’t taken to cigarettes yet
and was still running and playing like a kid

I was hanging upside down from a chin-up bar,
minding my own business
when two girls who looked like sisters
pointed and said:
Eeeeww, she needs a bra!
I was wearing a thin purple t-shirt
that had risen up to my chin
baring my stomach and an area that until
then I’d just considered my “upper stomach”
Never before had I given a damn about showing my upper stomach
but after recieving glances from even more on lookers,
I decided to stay the hell off that chin up bar

Later, my Aunt took me to Fred Meyer’s department store for my first bra
We’d taken my top off and looked in the mirror and
sure enough, my chest was ever so slightly raised
I begged for a pink or purple bra
but I ended up with white.