You asked meto bringtwo cardboard boxes home from workto make a castle& that’s exactly what you did,stacked them oneon top of the other, mama can youcut doors & windows?perfectyou continuedstoicallyeven when mama got a little bitchyabout cutting skinny stripsfrom cardboard(it’s not easy you know)I knowthank youattaching strips to flat piecesuntillook here’s my castlewith beds & thrones & windowsa balcony with railings, impressivebut just as you imaginedthere it isexactlyright,youare exactly right (good mama)as mama never could have imaginedright hereyouyou
Linking this up with Kenia’s prompt to the Real Toads, very late.
Late but not least. I love it. I am so in love with everything you write, because the life in your days can be seen in it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing to the prompt. <3
thank you, Kenia. i got "cardboard" in my head and had to get it out :) xo
DeleteCardboard castles are the best! You are a good Mama, Marian and the loved shared between you and the smalls shines through pieces like this poem.
ReplyDeleteI remember making my own and all the once my daughters built… castles and houses, rocket ships and cars… empty cardboard boxes are filled with imaginative possibility!
ReplyDeleteI loved every word of this, the feelings just washing over me and thinking, "yes I feel this about my own children these days. The rush of imagination just floods our house."
ReplyDeleteI love knowing you have that magic in your space too. xox
Oh, I love a mama who cuts a cardboard castle for her child after a tiring day at work.
ReplyDeleteThe imagination and creativity all rolled in to one sweet poem - especially meant for the non-believers.:)
ReplyDeleteI adore this.
ReplyDeleteIt's remarkable where we find, and leave, inspiration. This is a wonderful comment on the synergies of creative activity. And also a note about how much of creativity is just plain work! Fine job.
ReplyDeleteSteve K.
What a wonderful way to cast a moment to memory. Well done, fellow poet!
ReplyDeleteCutting cardboard castles.. what a joyful time spent together... (and in the end it's what counts)
ReplyDeletesmiles... my 13 year old is building a working catapult now. tabletop, but, probably lethal. yikes! ~
ReplyDeleteYes! I adore this. And, cutting cardboard IS hard!
ReplyDeleteright?!
Deletethis took me back to cardboard forts one of my favorites as a youth....such fun with a discarded box or three...
ReplyDeleteI love what you have captured here, the child world building and the parent begrudged with the futility. Or maybe that was just my reading of it, but I do love this! Viva la
ReplyDeleteOh gosh. Beautiful! I loved the interaction, the back and forth.
ReplyDeleteI love this, Marian, and I've cut plenty of cardboard in my time as a big sister, also as an aunt. I'm a great-aunt now and my cutting skills are all but gone, but I can make real good admirey noises.
ReplyDeleteLuv, K
A tender and honest fugue between mother & child where the strength is equal and the humility endearing. So hard to measure up to a child's dreams. I loved the cardboard forts my brother and I made when we were children.
ReplyDeleteit really is hard to measure up. but also, just amazing to experience. xoxo friends!
ReplyDeleteI've done stuff with the kids but never something that they had asked for like this. It is an honor any parent would cherish for the rest of their life. Nicely written, Marian, just the right amount of negative resistance showing up at the time when the parent gets tired first. :)
ReplyDelete..