Note: This is a first draft of a work I shared last night in Bri Strong’s Ecotone Writing Circle. Fascinating prompts. Amazing people in the circle. Much gratitude for the inspiration and the support!!!

Spirals form in my life.

As a child, I played a spiral game with my siblings. The memory is as vivid to me now as then. My memory follows a spiral to a day on a front lawn, devoid of dandelions, but marked on each side by lines of yellow daffodils and red tulips. Lines of flower beds define the do-not-pass-if-you’re-not-us lines of our property. It is a square of front lawn. A cell.

My sister, my brother and me play in the cell. I am the spinner, the spiral-er, because I am oldest, because it’s my game first, because I am very bossy. My mother tells me to play with them, take care of them and I do my job well. I am 11. My sister is 9. My brother is 7.

My sister is first because she is bravest.

Now, as then, our hands grip each other’s wrists. I yank her arms and begin to turn my own body at the same time.

I am the beginning of the spiral. The dot. I turn and spin. Her feet lift off the ground, her body flies through the air. Around and around. Five spins. Seven spins. She has to be dizzy when she lands. Very dizzy. So she can make a good statue.

Nine spins is her limit. We go by our age. On the beginning of the ninth spin, I lean far back and really throw her when I let go. She lands with a big oof.

Statue! Statue! I yell.

Her body is a bit out of place. One leg stays in the air. One arm is outstretched.

My brother and I name her:

Dog on the road. Cat flying over the fence. Poop in the toilet.

Nope, she says, I am a falling star.

The dot at the center of my spiralling memory ends there.

I remembered this today, perhaps because I spent time with the artist Louise Bourgeouis’ cell sculptures. Sculptures large enough to walk in but defined by do-not-cross-lines of property. She made 60 of them.

Note: I wrote this piece yesterday. I dreamed about this piece last night. I remembered a few more details: sinister details… Now, I’m really onto something interesting… hahahahaha!