JPG

My grandson Aiden loves to meet new friends. This young lady was his second "girlfriend" of the day at Lake Hennesey in Napa on Valentine's Day.

Sticks

My grandson picks up sticks
Drags them around, waves
them in the air, pokes
them in ponds and creeks
dashes through the landscape
and flowers, stick in hand.

His mom and dad will not let them
be in the house, I'm unclear why,
but sticks are what little boys do.

It is a Y-chromosome thing, not
a bad Y-chromosome thing, just
a tickle on the funny bone of genetics.

I've known little girls who like sticks
but not many, and only one seemed
to believe in them, filled with magic
and power and empowerment.

Their destiny would seem to be
in a different direction, or if
not a different direction certainly
a different pathway.

But this one day, stick in one hand
and new girl friend in the other hand,
pathways merged for more than fifteen
minutes, and the whole world turned
into a trail way walk along Lake Hennessey.

He tossed the stick away until
later, after the little girl and
her mom and big brother had gone
their way, he found a new stick,
bigger and better and I told him
we would take it home with us
if he wanted it but
he tossed it away after a while.

Intuitively, he seems to know
there are more sticks to be found
and shaken than a whole lifetime
can account for and doesn't
plan to limit the experience.