Arrived.

I’m empty-handed & full

plate-cleared & almost satiated.

I stare—open-mouthed—at babies & mamas

while nodding at the woman with the teary-eyed teen.

My amazement never ends,

my how-did-I-get-here verbalized,

my seething annoyance at too-much-science homework

handed down—generation by generation.

I want more-more-more!

just like my baby who tore pieces from me:

which I no longer want back.

I open up my palms—wide & say to the universe:

Thank you.

-Nancy Schatz Alton, 4.23.2018