99poems/children

Shouldn’t children
be banned from
public places,
now that mine
is grown?
I hear them
screaming in strollers,
mothers admonish
siblings,
“Leave him alone,”
they pull,
or slap,
or yank.
It is all
very distressing,
and makes me glad
I only had one.
Makes me want
to go home,
where I am lonely,
now that she is
gone.

6/29/99