Wednesday, May 23, 2012

It didn*t break

Another thing that will not win me parenting awards... but I did connect with the five-year-old....

Of course so many bad things
Might happen.
Still, all too often I want to say
Don*t you see how utterly astonishing
This is?
Don*t you see?
Don*t you see?
Today the small child in the store
Pulled over a glass vase
Twice as tall
As he was.
I heard it fall.
It didn*t break.
His mother quickly
Set it upright,
Sat the boy in the shopping cart.
His older brother and I looked at the vase.
It didn*t break
I said
Look at that!  It didn*t break!
Three more times
I ran into the family.
Each time the older brother
Said to me:
It didn*t break.
Each time I said:
Isn*t that amazing?
He nodded
Each time his mother
Wheeled his brother away
Safe in the shopping cart.

I know I will not get the gold seal
Of mother approval
For this one.
I can picture the older brother
At the dinner table,
Tucked in bed tonight,
Saying
It didn*t break.

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