The Road to Bed Is Paved with Tantrum

My nieces are pretty young; it's so entertaining to watch them in their various moods. The line is thin between joy and tantrum, between getting your way and finding it not to be everything you wanted it to be. I empathize even as I wish things were smoother, the path to happiness a straighter line, the road to bedtime paved with fewer arguments and more silence.


Who knew this was the stuff poetry gets made of?

Bedtime

David Wagoner

These two girls are thinking
Of almost everything
They can think of that doesn't go
To bed right now. They've brushed
And washed as slowly
As those two other girls
In the bathroom mirror
Who are trying not to look
Sleepy either, who can hardly
Hear what their names are
As they dawdle on bare feet
To the edge of their mattresses
And pretend they've forgotten how
To climb up and lie down,
And they aren't quite sure where
They were, but they know the moment
Their ears are against those pillows
They might give in and stay
There, though they won't be
Who or what they want
To be, but will fall into place
In a story where everyone
Is asleep and will never know
When to remember why.