A Kid’s Museum Day

Languid footsteps carry the boy forward
Crop dust from bib overalls mix with floor traffic
Eyes dart from dead ideas to wonders unrecognized
Mother’s hand helps lift her son’s forty pounds onward
Ascending the marble steps to the second floor

Ever larger exhibition halls
Housing monstrous creatures
Beside glass cases to overwhelm
With hairy two-legged evolution
Peaking from behind mock stones

Atop pedestals supporting
Busts of naked emotions
As yet not encountered
By youthful minds
Drive his hands into pockets
Where more familiar comfort
Steelies and taws warm his fingers

Sepia daylight spills across a frontier porch
Farmer and wife sit together on porch swing
“Like the picture of grandpa and grandma in you scrapbook, mama”
“Yes, dear.”
“They’re happy, mama.”
“Yes, dear.”
Mother’s eyes glisten
“Why you crying, mama?”
“Oh… just history, sweetheart.  Just history.”
He nods and smiles
“Yeah, old is sad.  Is it time to go yet?”