Life's Intricacies

If the brown haired eleven year old girl

had not laid eyes upon "Specky" a dapper

young boy of thirteen with a face full of freckles

who would--on his way to his job as a soda jerk at the local pharmacy-- pass her house and smile

causing her to blush and refer to him as her boyfriend

though she had not once spoken to the boy

which her sister so boldly pointed out every chance she could find

and if this sister had not convinced their mother

to let this girl go to the city dance with this boy

who grew so fond of this girl that he was unable

to study for his midterm at UC Berkley at the age of sixteen

and if they had not grown to love each other enough
to have four kids

one of whom is my mother

who found a dapper young boy

while attending UC Berkley of which

she became very fond of

and if this boy

who would become my father

had not proposed to my mother in a San Fransisco Denny's

two weeks after their first date

and if my mother had never agreed to marry my father

and move to Alaska with him for an

adventure and a job offer of a lifetime

I would not have found myself

lying here on the floor of my parent's bedroom

contemplating how this very poem may stand between

me and my acceptance to

UC Berkley where my parents

and their parents before them attended

and I would have never been writing this poem

so fatigued with sleep

that even the soft squeaking of the pencil lead

against my white notebook serves as a means

of lulling me to sleep