Night Karate

I'm walking you girls back

From the train station in the dark

When you both stoop, to snap at dandelions

Shimmying out of a crack in the pavement

And I’m immediately transported back to our walks

When you were young

At the time

It was a welcome indulgence to know

You were old enough to walk

But still insistent we take the stroller

So I could cart you like twin, gliding empresses

Upon your royal sedan

Inevitably, at your command

We would halt

To select from nature's open curio cabinet

Stocked by, as you both had called her, “Mother Garden”

Which I refused to correct

I gave you treats

To keep your mouths content

With something sweet and constantly melting

Upon your happy red tongues

Sometimes, a lollipop

Which, minutes later

Would resurface, wordlessly

Dual, empty flagpoles of no special allegiance

Your eyes continued to dance

Over the slowly advancing corridor of foliage

Hungry to spy the next prize

The next addition to our growing cache

Of Nature’s exotica

Which we never, ever kept

You were showing me the world again

A different world than the one I knew

A world where a marbled orange stripe

Through an otherwise plain pebble

Was a magical and miraculous gift

You both shout now

And I’m startled back into the present

You are excited by how distinct and long your shadows are

In the harsh beacon light of a gas station’s signage

There’s a pealing joy in your screams

As you both karate-chop at my shadow

And with the same motion

Empty your hands

To let the dandelion heads fall