Thin Places. Lesley Choyce

      Inside

      When you are young

      you have

      imaginary friends

      right?

      You

      make them up and

      hang out with them

      have adventures you can

      never have

      with real people.

      I had a whole crowd

      of friends who

      didn’t exist

      outside of my head.

      Real people were

      well

      boring.

      Adults were the worst.

      They say How are you?

      And I usually say nothing

      because I know they can’t handle

      the truth.

      Some ask What do you want to be

      when you grow up?

      And sometimes I answer

      I want to live in my own kingdom

      an island filled with amazing beings

      only I can imagine.

      My Imaginary Friends

      They

      spoke to me

      and told me stories

      urged me to do crazy things

      like

      make parachutes out of sheets

      and jump from

      the shed roof.

      They suggested I should learn

      to juggle knives

      and study the nature of

      fire.

      They told me where to look for

      ghosts

      and demons

      and sometimes they

      were not lying

      although sometimes

      they just wanted trouble.

      (My father said he had a plan

      to destroy

      my imaginary friends.

      That made them very angry.

      But I said

      I would never let that happen.)

      Mostly

      late at night

      they spoke to me

      of amazing places

      that could not possibly

      exist.

      The voices were always clear

      and

      sounded like me.

      I guess they were really

      just me

      or parts of me.

      Let Me Introduce Myself

      My parents named me

      Declan Lynch

      Names are important

      but

      it’s also important to

      remember

      that someone usually your parents

      just made up your name.

      You were not born with it.

      Think about that.

      You

      were just you

      when you came into this world.

      My mom and dad were the Lynches

      living on an average street Maple Terrace

      like the tree

      with the little helicopter seeds.

      The Lynches had their first and only kid

      me

      and said I looked like my great-grandfather

      whose name was Declan Timothy Lynch.

      I only saw pictures of my great-grandfather

      much later

      when I could focus my eyes.

      I didn’t look anything like him

      but

      the name stuck.

      Declan

      or Deck sometimes

      or Declan Patrick Lynch

      when I was bad

      which was often.

      Just jumping from shed roofs

      getting lost in malls

      hiking deep into the tangled forest

      behind my house

      always determined to not come home on time

      chasing ghosts and demons

      and listening for the next bit of advice

      from the voices in my head.

      Parental Advice

      My mother told my father

      it was just a phase

      I was going through

      a very long phase

      and I would grow out

      of it.

      (But she secretly told me

      that she understood the voices

      and that I should learn the difference

      between the good voices

      and bad ones.)

      My father

      was a sworn enemy

      of my imaginary friends.

      Your imagination

      he said

      plays tricks on you

      dirty tricks.

      When I asked him what he meant

      he tried to explain

      but grew frustrated

      and stomped away.

      I heard him say to my mother in the kitchen

      Sometimes, Fiona

      Sometimes I think

      that boy is not our son

      at all.

      Maybe they made a mistake

      at the hospital

      and gave us

      the wrong