Bottlecaps

She painted letters on tin caps for the children to play with.
Kids being kids, they lost a few.
She threw some out
rather than step on them one more time,
or have to trade a bone to extract a Q
from the dog for fear he’d choke.
The caps would cluster together
masquerading as biscuits
at toddler tea parties,
or as soldiers on a preschool battlefield.
They might spell a word, cat or stop.
When the kids were older,
the impertinent caps spelled out Shut op
for lack of a second U
or Zerk after the J was lost in the heating vent.
When the youngest left for college, he spelled out
gratfl with six of the remaining letters
leaving them for her to find on the kitchen table,
next to a spray of flowers.