Hidden Treasure

for my mother on her 90th birthday

A small boy walks home from school
alone, slowly shuffling and kicking at
stones along the way. Head down,
he evenly sees what has been cast aside;
appreciating that which is of no use.

Now and then, something shiny
catches his eye: a colorful bottle cap,
a soda can flattened by a passing car,
an especially round stone. He stops
and stoops to examine more closely,
forgetting, for a moment, his destination.

What intrigues him still, he picks up
and carries home for presentation
to his waiting mother. She greets
his little bits of the world as the treasures
they now are and praises him
for his careful eyes and tender heart.

Her delight with him and his world
becomes the treasure that guides
and sustains him across oceans
and decades as he walks
the many roads of his life.