Sunny clear
day, the ominous rainless sky bright and cheerful
Our family
wandered the Space museum
Disjointed
disagreeable as we snapped camera photos
And sent
irritated pages across the loudspeaker
Always the
gift shop represents a gate to a momentary paradise
A toy to
fascinate the mind or distract the heart from pain
You selected
a globe, with lightning inside when you plug it in.
Jerking from
the rod in the middle to the finger that strokes its form
We rushed all
of us home.
The windows
open in the car and you stuck in the back
The father
the mother the child and the toy
Arguing
fussing while we planned dinner
And dropped
him off at the grocery store
While we went
ahead home to open this wondrous thing
This
elaborate gadget. Oh you love your toys!
I went to
change, to pray, to organize myself,
And I could
hear you fumble the globe from the box,
Adjust the
papers on the desk and plug it in.
In the quiet
I often don’t expect the disturbance, the problem, the sudden pain.
The quick
sound of shattering glass and a wail of anguish
Brought me
running to fix the child, the toy,
But it was
already over. All that was left was to
prevent injury
and sweep up
the fragments of a broken toy.
I tried to
reassure you-
“We’ll go
back. You can get another one.”
But I don’t
know when we’ll return there-
We have to
just move on from here.
