The Home-made Gum Case

I complained to my children that someone

had taken all the gum out of

its tidy packaging and deposited it in the canister,

thus removing from it any form of identification. “Is this

Fruity Blast or Wintergreen? Who knows?” Probably

I said too much, maybe too hard. Anyway.

By the next day my cannily-artistic middle child

had unbidden made for each family member, out of index card

and scented marker, a gum carrying case, personalized,

its flip-top lid secured with Velcro.

Problem mostly solved. And the part that isn’t,

what can you do but give it over to grace, to thanks

that your children see a chance for redemption

where you see only chaos? What matters,

they say to us with their offerings of greater understanding,

is that we know what each other needs,

and that we see to it by including ourselves in the transaction.