Your picture books dance
with half-remembered stories
of unicorns and bears
that we read, laughing
before you quite recognized the words
Each rainbow page
a collage of yesterdays
when we said goodnight to the moon
one hundred times,
studied those red mittens,
those playful kittens
We searched for blue kangaroo
with a dark-haired little girl
whose folly wa to lose him
again and again
We laughed when Knuffle Bunny
fell out of the washing machine
to Trixie’s inexhaustible delight
and your own
We frowned at the bear
who always wanted more
and left all his friends hungry
We watched as Sal picked blueberries
with yet another bear, little Sal
whose mother was always so focused
I marveled at her matter-of-fact resolve.