On Wednesday morn, I packed the Kranslings up
And hurried into town and to the store
For Clive to have the chance to look and choose
The trappings for his birthday: plates, and forks,
And cups, and straws, and little checkered flags
He wants to put upon his cake. He said
That they would ornament a race track’s end.
(This next line took a while for me to write
As Jeremy sang a while a song that he
Had made for the unfortunate event,
The expiration of the heavy cream
Which would take place (he said) upon the morrow.
And it was most distracting. Where was I?)

Oh yes–I was to say that Clive is ten
And yet he still persists in those first loves
That captivated him at two, and three,
The Cars that colored all his thoughts and play
And favorite songs, and favorite colors, all
Encompassed in his love. It has been long
Since he has mentioned anything with cars,
Yet here we were, planning a race track cake.
Our Clive is nothing if not wholly thorough,
Consistent as a metronome’s refrain,
Yet hardly to be called predictable.
We said the race track would be chocolate.

Two other errands we had to complete:
To find some drinks* for Daddy at a store
That sells them at a discount. After that
We had to go to Wal-Mart for to find:
Some chlorine for the pool; baking soda;
A box of Borax. At the first Mart
They didn’t have the chlorine, so we drove
South to another store to find it there,
But had no luck. I got the other things
And had each child choose for himself a snack
As I was glad they hung in for so long
While I had looked for chlorine. We came home
Much later than I thought we ever would.
And we were tired. Poor Aurick had no nap
And it was almost dinnertime. I put
him down–and Flannery–to rest a while–
I set myself to rustle up some food–
And Elvie saw that in the southern field
Some twenty-five balloons had come to earth.
We ate, then cleaned, then read, then went to bed.
(We tied the balloons to a steady post)
And I sat up to type this little blog
While Jeremy sang about the heavy cream
And Flannery snoozed. (She’s sure to wake up soon).

Today while in the car, our Ephraim said
He thought that he would name this current year
“The Year of Blessings”. And I think he is right.

*San Pellegrino