Snake on the Stairs
A photo op and conversation with my grandson
To hear the related 5-minute audio file that I uploaded today as my Morning Journal flash briefing for Alexa devices, please click on the play button:
Rushing the Future
My daughter Roo arrived in Sanibel from Boston yesterday with my grandsons Jake and Ryan, who are 11 and 9.
We bought supplies at Publix on the way in from the airport, rode bikes, chased bees and played keep-away in the club pool, had supper at Ocean Pizza, and watched Phineas and Ferb on TV.
Everyone slept well, including me.
During my 5 a.m. quiet time this morning, I wrote a poem based on the photo above. Ryan was the first one up, and he accepted my invitation to record today’s Morning Journal.
I read him the poem, which he liked. “It has good details,” he said.
I asked how he came up with the idea of coming down the stairs like a snake. An image from a graphic novel had presented itself at the top of the stairs, et voilà!
It looks smooth in the photo, but Ryan said the slide down the stairs was painful. But he likes risk.
“I’m rushing the future,” he said.
“Why?”
“Let’s say you want to go to a dangerous spot where no one will go. You’ll have the whole place to yourself.”
Exactly.
Here’s the poem:
SNAKE ON THE STAIRS
All of a sudden I saw my grandson slithering down the carpeted stairs here in Florida. His brother Jake is the Snake, but here was Ryan inventing his own way down— slow enough for me to tap a photo on my iPhone 16 They’re still asleep— white noise emanating from the loft while I sit before my candle not thinking of poetry That long, straight snake smiled at me and held his pose for posterity. Maybe I will try it myself when they wake up— old guy who can make kids laugh, slithering toward freedom.