It's been an interesting 24 hours.
1. 11:30 AM Friday
For Valentines Day,
I wanted my class to read
The Missing Tarts by B.G. Hennessey,
a story about the Queen of Hearts
and various nursery rhyme characters.
The problem was that
current first graders don't know many nursery rhymes
so I read Mother Goose
to my group of littles
before we went off on our tart hunt.
"Hey Diddle Diddle,
the cat and the fiddle,
the cow jumped over the moon..."
and many others,
the same rhymes
my grandma Maud
had taught me
long ago.
2. 1:30ish PM Friday
Paul and Kate and the grandgirls
fly over the North Pole
enroute from Hong Kong to Newark
coming home from Kate's brother's wedding in Manila,
perhaps the longest flight possible
over The Top Of The World.
3. 9:30 AM Saturday
I find an old frame,
a Goodwill purchase that I had hoped would fit an African print
but didn't.
4. 10:30 AM, Saturday
Upstairs, an unused heating pipe cracks in two places
due to cold temperatures.
Water pours into the study and the basement.
As we drag accumulations
of the stuff of life
from the wet closets,
I find Paul's second grade entry to a PTA art contest.
He had tried to draw a fox
but it looked better as a cow.
He put it on the moon
because not all cows can actually make it over the moon.
5. 11:30 AM, Saturday
The cow, 4,
is now in the frame, 3,
that reminds me of voyages over planets, 2,
and my grandmother's nursery rhymes
and Valentines Day
and the pleasure of sharing memories with small children, 1.
The framed cow now looks down on the parlor
reminding us
that life is a trip
and not all trips go as planned.
Today, if you find yourself like the puzzled cow,
far from where you thought you'd be,
take a minute
and sit down
and enjoy the view.
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