Exceptional Evening Age 6 and _

by Allie Gerlach

Every moment of fetching beer
and ashtrays pays off now!
Set free! Find your friends — hurry!
There is so much to do!
Lightening bugs! Popcicles!
Slip and Slide in dark wet grass
staining white shorts already
sticking to sweaty pumping legs!
Kool-Ade! Crickets! Freeze Tag!
There is no time for a hug of appreciation
but the impulse is not forgotten,
so the happy at night child presses a
dirty sticky palm to arm — shoves off
shouting "Thanks Moooommmm!"

Allie sometimes works as a Web developer/producer. Other times she doesn't work at all. Working is less stressful than not working, but all this not working does makes her feel more like a poet and less like a cog in a machine.