She grew up near Hawley, a tiny town perched on the edge of the ancient Lake Agassiz between Fargo, North Dakota, and Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Drives you crazy. Grit and sand sticking to scalp and pores. Dust leaking through screens and doors, laying down a coat of film across the bureau and cupboards. Once I wrote a poem about the wind stalking me.
Wind is fear, or wind can be a gently rocking boat on a quiet little lake.
It must be genetic. I am my mother's second child and second son, born at Loretto Hospital on Chicago's west side, one of 13 children born of her 15 pregnancies. My mother told me that I came so long after my older brother was born. I discovered other stories about my mother's birthplace in a book called Gopher Tales, a battered blue hardcover we owned, published in 1932. There were stories about Paul Bunyan and Father De LaSalle.