Sciences Participating with Arts & Culture in Education

Crooked Lane

Illustrated by Chi Lei

You’re in your childhood neighborhood

crunching dead leaves beneath your feet,

throwing yourself in piles of foliage

in the middle of the street.

Your father is at your side

with his jacket hanging slack.

He throws muted pigment at you

and you feebly try to toss it back.

From under a blanket of paper

you hear him shuffle into his own pile

and as you rise from the dead

he flashes you that intermittent smile.

Beneath the world of grey,

in colour, you watch him sink.

There’s a gleam in his eye that leads you to believe

he’s not quite as foreign as you think.