This morning I asked you for the first time
what you want to be when you grow up
and you didn’t pause at all
before announcing
a spotty horse
and when your dad asked you
if you wanted to consider another profession
just in case it didn’t work out
you responded patiently
I will be a spotty horse
for sure
after which we all lay quietly
in the big bed
as the breeze
painted our faces
with the smell of grass
and then after a long while you asked
mom, will you be a hippopotamus
which in my puffy state
I tried not to take personally
focusing on the raw sweetness
of that wet grass
and the easy warmth
of their morning skin.