Egg Colored House with Blue Shutters

Mama used to tell me to close my eyes

And think of the egg colored house with blue shutters 

Where we sat on the white picket fence and watched the sun rise

And fell asleep in our beds as the moon turned to butter 

And instead of eating one dollar burgers and fries

We would play all day in the green lawn

And at night Mama would feed us lasagna and pies 

And instead of sleeping from bench to park 

Mama would tuck us into warm blankets

And the next day we would awake in our beds to the sound of meadowlarks

And on the days that I struggled to see the egg colored house with blue shutters 

Mama would say look with your heart and not with your eyes

Yet as the image didn't come clearer and the days ran together

I realized that Mama had raised me in a house of lies. 

-anna sluder