Mundane

My ideal life

Has fog and orange leaves

Because that's my ideal autumn

Early morning coffee,

Wearing a cream sweater

With my honey in dress pants

And a child eating cheerios,

Her backpack is on the barstool next to her

It's a picket fence,

To a green yard where

my dog and my son play catch

And I grow tomatoes and pumpkins

And my lazy college cat lays on the window sill

Watching the birds and falling leaves

Her age apparent from the snow-colored fur on her face

I dream about this life

Mundane

Normal

I don't fear usual

Although I once did.

Thinking you are going to die before 20

Makes you wish for usual

Normal

Mundane.

I am finally 20,

And I finally hope that

I live longer.

Longer to 50

Or even 75,

With my bones more rickety

And my daughter telling me to lay off the sodium as

Her daughter plays in my living room,

As I reminisce to her mother how

My daughter used to play with that same doll

When she was a little girl,

Eating cheerios at my counter

As I got ready for work,

And my children's father,

Now old,

No longer in dress pants

Sits in his “spot”

An old recliner chair,

Talking to my son and his son

About a game

Or the weather

Or his old pal

My ideal life is a family I built for myself

The ability and belief to live past 15

A warm, cozy house

In a dual-income household

So my children never worry

And my parents don't have to buy them necessities for Christmas