Daniel Nester on Origin Stories

“Every child relies on someone else to make ground for their origin story, where their body comes from. My first memory takes place in my grandparents’ backyard, where my mother is showing me a broken milk bottle. She tells me that I ‘have to use big people glasses now.’ No more bottles. It’s one of those maternal dupes, a necessary deception to move things along. My mother denies this ever happened. I remember it vividly, down to the poison ivy under the bush, brushing against my legs.”

Daniel Nester, from “The Writer is Present,” published in the independent online lit mag Painted Bride Quarterly #84