My dishes went unwashed today,
I didn’t make the bed,
I took his hand and followed
Where his eager footsteps led.
Oh yes, we went adventuring,
My little son and I,
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the summer sky.
We waded in a crystal stream,
We wandered through a wood.
My kitchen wasn’t swept today,
But life was sweet and good.
We found a cool sun-dappled glade
And now my small son knows
How Mother Bunny hides her nest
Where fern and larkspur grow.
We watched a robin feed her young,
We climbed a sunlit hill,
Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky;
We plucked a daffodil.
That my house was neglected,
That I didn’t sweep the stair,
In twenty years no one on earth
Will know or even care.
But that I’ve helped a little boy
To noble manhood grow,
In twenty years the whole wide world
May look and see and know.
~ Ms. Peifer
