Wild Writing 4/100

Today it felt like spring had fully sprung

as we sat on a blanket I bought from a senior at my high school during homecoming when I returned from college

At the time, the $20 seemed overpriced, but I had an urge and went for it

And seventeen years later the Port Jeff Royals blanket sold by the class of 2003 gets shoved into the bottom of our BOB stroller

that my 3 year old is almost too big for

and laid out on the wet and fresh cut grass of the Upper School lawn

For 45 minute I sit there with my daughter

as she eats every bit of snack I packed

a frozen yogurt “stick” (as she calls them),

4 dates,

and a serving of multi-colored Goldfish crackers (cheddar cheese flavor)

and we watch the bees in the clover and the dandelion, the darting flight of woodpeckers, the circling of hawks over head

and the endless, and I mean endless, stream

of painted lady butterflies on their south to north migration

A flowing river of butterflies, sometimes one or two a minute, sometimes a whole fluttering of them

like someone threw confetti caught up by the wind

And I watch her watching them

She immediately takes off her shoes and socks to wiggle her toes in the grass

Her long, tight blonde curls platinum in the sunlight

(Prompt “I plan to watch…” from Mary Ruefle 30 March in Dunce, shared by @poetryforge. I am creating a timed piece of wild writing every day for 100 days for this year’s 100 Day Project.)