After the Shrieking Comes the Silence

"That's actually a funny line," a friend

Told me when I said it as a promise
That a toddler would soon be off to sleep
And done with stumbling over his guitars,
Demanding he only play the big one,
Not the ukulele! "It could apply,"
He added, "to the whole deal of our lives,
Everything summed up in miniature."
We both laughed. He cleared away some dishes.
The toddler jumped off the couch. Our partners
Took her outside, into a green evening
Lit by paper lanterns and fairy lights
And eased by a light breeze off of the lake.
"You sure have a mordant sense of humor,"
He said, as we left. I wrote the line down.