laundromat

“Lala,” he called with concern

as we drove away from the school

But there would be no time to miss her,

for we were off on our own laundromat adventure

the place was smaller than I’d imagined;

clean but industrial

with huge machines that would wash

sleeping bags two at a time in under 25 minutes.

He helped me close the doors and insert the coins

and we sat down to wait. . .

Three board books and five minutes later, I was worried

Could I keep him busy and happy long enough?

But I had forgotten that everything is a toy to a child

we growled as we marched the dinosaur and the lion

over each chair – then all over mom

after determining that the washers were still washing,

we opened and closed the doors of all other washers

then finally put our bags in the dryers,

playfully stuffing our quarters in,

and opened and closed all the dryer doors

next was a lively ride in the wheeled basket

for our friends dinosaur and lion

then another sit down to enjoy our vending machine fare.

with gorillas among the animal crackers

we could not avoid an encore reading of

Goodnight Gorilla, after finally deciding that

the mystery cracker was an owl.

as we said goodbye to the laundromat

he grinned at me and declared “FUN!”

and it was indeed