This morning my son went to get us Starbucks’s.
I mean, he drove. I paid.
That’s how things work around here.
“Should I order on my phone or yours?” He said, like some sort of master negotiator

When he got back he was sorry to be late
he had seen a bear cross the street,
tried to follow it a bit,
lost sight as it sauntered into the trees
by the bus stop.

“I guess. . .
Make a lot of noise when you go to the bus,” I said
because we are not afraid of bears here
I mean, it’s not like a man was running towards the bus stop

I left my Starbucks refresher for later
carried my dry laundry upstairs
thought about how I should have taken the dog’s barks
more seriously last night
instead of telling him
okay, yelling at him
to chill out about the neighbor’s cat
oops

After my shower I
proudly started to put my clothes away in the closet
like I imagine real grown-ups do in the morning
before school
before school!
I imagine those real grown-ups might not scream for their 17 year old when a creepy crawly bazillion leg bug crawls out of the pants they are about to fold
But I did
I screamed
then told myself
I can do this I can do this I can do this
I don’t need a husband
Who probably wouldn’t have helped anyway
I can catch this thing in something
something something I need something
I turned to find that something
something something there must be something on my dresser

I’m not a bug squasher, not a bug killer
I’m more
catch and release
less murder

But when I turned back around
the bug was gone – he will never know how nice I
was
going to be
but now, I thought…
I’ll write it, even though I don’t want to
That bug had to be somewhere in my bed
I yelled for my son to come help me again
“Bring a vacuum
or we have to sell our house!”

I tried to carefully shake the blankets
my dog looked at me confused
my cat ran under the bed
my son warned me to
be careful!
you might touch it!
it’s going to jump out of there!
I didn’t get far in my quest
it was time to go to school

So later I will decide
Strip the bed, vacuum, look in every cranny
or sleep on the couch?

Lucky for me
help must be on the way
because after school I found
not the bug
but the boys’ wanted poster they must have made before catching the bus
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BUG?
LAST SEEN: MOM’S PANTS
So although it may be true that
apparently we are more scared of bugs
than bears here
we also know how to laugh
in the face of fear
and make clever wanted posters

It’s April, and I’ve been writing poetry …all month! Thanks to Ethical ELA for all the great prompts and inspirations!