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.