"Maurice Sendak--A Fiction"

Maurice Sendak--A Fiction

5 A.M., Ridgefield, Connecticut,
that steel morning light.
The electric transformers,
towering like fairy tale giants,
feet planted in the ground
yet stomping across fields
on the horizon--
did they come from a dream
or from
one of your books?
I can see them
through the kitchen window.
I smell
coffee and citrus.
“Did you feed
the dogs yet?”

In the afternoon,
we walk
and you say
the planets are like
children on a playground,
chasing each other
in circles.

At night,
you write a story
on the sheets.
It starts on the pillow,
sentences wrap around me,
curve over my stomach,
I can see the ending
somewhere
near my feet.
You begin sketching
on the blanket...
draw me in a book,
draw me with the Wild Things,
draw me in your head.

©JEF 1986

“My great curiosity about childhood as a state of being and how all children manage to get through childhood from one day to the next, how they defeat boredom, fear, pain, and anxiety and find joy. It is a constant miracle to me that children grow up.”
--Maurice Sendak when asked for the theme of his writing