First Ride

A Rappel Down the Memory Chain

By: J.M. Robert Henriquez - Jan 05, 2015

First Ride

To wax poetic about elevators
Is tricky
Tacking backward—in time
To the first time for anything is
Downright artful
As I rappel down the memory chain
In search of lost moments
I begin to remember
Something … [good things]
Like my first elevator ride
How it moved me from place to place
Both physical & mental
Back to my roots in Port-au-Prince
1957—the year I spent raising prepubescent hell
In the Presidential Palace
The only residence with elevators—known as ‘ascenseur’
The year my Mother occupied an apartment at the Palace
The year I became official playmate to the Dauphin
With delirious joy we rode … and rode
In the First Family’s private elevator
With the President and First Lady
Embarrassingly fawning over us
Palace security in full alert
Oh mon Dieu! Quel bordel
Best first ride ever