NaMoWriPo #28: I was going to try for a few more poems tonight, but I just want to stop here as I'm outta gas. The next poem I publish here I'll work on it first not one of these quick takes.

I was listening to my son doing his nightly routine thinking about how his days are shaped by his “little marches”. He has done this type of comfort or need to walk/run for many years. He started doing it sometime once he started going to school and it has expanded over the years. The noises are comforting and communicate for him his mood and it is just his daily song. I love hearing him! Sometimes I do not hear it and I’ll be on the phone and someone will ask me about what the noise is and I’ll say, “Oh, that’s just my son. He’s happy.”

 Spectrum Exercise

Your heavy footfalls on wooden floors

One, two, three, four

He and I on a happy day a year ago!

Often a march or romp

This you do in the mornings

A slow slide across the floor

Mid-morning a bounce

That gets you out the door

To return in the afternoon

Up and down like a rushing wave

From your domicile to the living room

Round the kitchen and back

Cackling with giggles at invisible companions

Or a secret phrase or thought

It comes not in ones but twos

Threes or more

Stomping it out on the floor

Dancing wildly while laughing

In the evening it is time to pace

A race of words coming

Politics, weather is your tether

Your chase of thoughts

That swing round and round

As the ball is trapped 'round the pole

And words have run out

The soldier’s step

Returns and you are

Grunting and groaning

A gleeful tune

That is all your own

With song embedded

As sighs and slides of scales

Crooning loudly, fitting you together

filling in the cracks

that have formed as you dealt

with more than you thought you could or should

A putting away of the day

Contented to be at home

Headed to the winddown

You shut the door

Until tomorrow’s exercise resumes