Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

We went to Pioneer Park today. A small park on Taille Street, off Manchester road. Four children were fascinated by the playground that lined the park. Three boys and a girl wearing a red tie dye shirt. Tall oaks lined the park. About 21 if sitting on a black park bench across from the restroom. A gentle air warmed the summer evening. Breeze from the oaks were gentle too. The children took turns swinging on swings. Some played hide and seek. Others jumped on numbers written in chalk on floor. The one named after a gift from God went through a red square shaped as a general store. The others took turn climbing rocks shaped as boulders.

Today was long and fruitful, a dreadful and tearful one too, if you asked the one named after a gift from God. We spoke to our public health hero. We met with the one who shaped the arc of our dream-like journey. We moved a grant submission from draft to final stages. Not before sending off documents to adopt a neice. Cancer still leaps like a flame that stings in our home. But today, today was for the park only. Pioneer Park on Taille street, off Manchester road.

A native Missouri pollinator garden lined the entrance to the park. Bright and yellow coneflowers known for strength and healing. There was a see-saw next to a tall southern red oak tree. The one we gave back to God picked up sticks and ran around with leaves that fell off the tree. The other 2 ran around the park until they saw the numbers written in chalk next to the trees.

Then they began to hopscotch one after the other. We watched as some skipped the numbers 4 and 6. One didn’t know how to skip. Another only wanted to spin. A woman with a dog named Rolland passed by. All the kids loved his black and white frame. One asked if she had kids. She noted they were older but she loved the park too. She played at the same park when she was as young as them. She moved around but never too far from the park. Her husband grew up off Lindbergh road, not too far from the park too. How lucky to live in a neighborhood next to a park.

Pioneer park on Taille street, of Manchester road is surrounded by homes. Some grey and white. Others blue and white and some still brown and white. A baseball field lined the middle of park. A soccer, basketball, and tennis court lined the sides too. But the trees, all the oaks, and redbuds along the way, a multitude next to the blooming yellow coneflowers, are like a poem that begins on its own, demanding nothing but your dreams.