At Home (with young children)

The smallness of
this long day,
minutes parceled out
by tweezer.

Fingers combing carpet fibers,
grooming this house,
feeling for earnestly snipped scraps
in school-dull colors.

Finding, too, grievances
like unpopped kernels,
to be picked up,
polished with care
between thumb and fingertip,
and slipped into my mouth.