The Cure for Tantrums

After perhaps the third tantrum,

I realized that Caleb was love-hungry.

So I carried him to the trampoline,

And held him while I jumped.

He crumpled into tears if I set him down.

But after a few minutes, he recovered himself.

Then we traveled to the peach tree

And picked a half bucket of small, not all ripe peaches.

He sat on my shoulders for a bit, reaching higher.

Then we returned to the house.

He had no interest in my presence then,

Preferring to play side-by-side with his brothers.

I left him to it. 

He was missing his daddy. He needed to know I loved him. 

And once he did, he was content.

Death After Death

Camelot was no more.

Godwulf the hermit, struck down.

Gaheris and Lynet also.

We kept a running total

Over the last two books, 

And it eventually ran to a full page.

Beloved characters

(And a few stinkers).

I can see now, with a day of distance behind me,

How much of my sorrow comes,

Not only from loss of characters,

But from the loss of the experience,

The end. 

I want those precious hours of counting down pages,

Of unexpectedly beautiful moments that made me gasp

And get prickly behind the ears

To keep going forever.

And I confess to feeling 

More than a little devastated that

Camelot was no more.

Grieving

We raced through the 2700 pages.

And as we reached the end,

I was unprepared for the actual end.

I had wanted to finish by my trip,

And I succeeded.

But a larger part of me,

The part that feels tears welling even now,

Wants to keep reading like that

Forever,

The two sons listening intently.

The Two

A knife, magically crafted as a weapon for murder,

Becomes, instead, a source of rescue.

A son, conceived for hate and conquest,

Chooses to carry out his mission.

Whatever the original intent,

Everyone has a choice.

Haiku, by Amy and Joe

June Strawberry Moon

Light shines out of a grey sky

Glowing between clouds.

Moon Poem, by Joe

Moon shines

On a grey sky

In between clouds.

Four People

“I want to be like four people.

Dad, Abraham, and Jadon

Because they all earn money.

And also Jadon because

He is a master at games.

And myself!”

Said Caleb.