Hand-made Cards

Look, Mommy, I did it!


You said and I just worried,


The house was a mess,


Mud on the carpet,


Cars under the chair,


Juice stain on your shirt,


Crayons everywhere and


Glue on the table.

What are you working on,

I wondered but you just blushed,

Said nothing at all and

Ran to hide the card.

He must be special,

I thought as I cleaned

The scraps of hearts and the

Glue from the table.

And how are you doing,

I’d ask but it’s just voicemail,

You’re too busy to call,

You never come by.

I’m checking Facebook —

Grandkids getting big,

But at least there is no

Glue on my table.

I have the last piece here,

You say and the puzzle’s done.

Remember when we played

In the big back yard,

Colored with crayons,

Made Valentine cards.

I wish we had much more

Glue on the table.

About this story

At a small library in the midwest, a few of us adults sat around a couple of tables with cards, scraps of magazine paper, markers, and glue. It was the end of a workshop on the value and the how-to of making hand-made cards for our loved ones, when one of the participants asked how he could make up for the mess he made by getting glue on the table. After other ideas, such as resurfacing the table, we settled on his punishment — write a poem about glue on the table. I am no poet, but I took the challenge on and this story was born. I hope you all have lots of glue on your tables.