The Value of a Paper Heart

Toast and hot chocolate
in the red high chair

Jumping rope in the courtyard with
one end on a tree

Just two
of the millions of things that stick with me.

Trips to Yosemite, stopping on the way
finding buckeyes
smelling trees
taking pictures
keeping leaves

Reading my poems out loud in the car
you always loved them - no matter how far

Lunch on Fridays, church on Sundays
cousins at the clubhouse pool

But mostly
those days after school

Toast and hot chocolate
in the red high chair

You made me make my valentines
while other kids at school
got fancy store-bought ones with He-Man and Scooby doo.

You knew
the value of a paper heart
cut carefully and slow
by small new hands and old worn hands
and glued
just
so.

Toast and hot chocolate
in the red high chair

You 

were always there.