JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF HAPPINESS

JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF HAPPINESS



Jackie waddle walked into the kitchen
holding a plastic hammer in one hand
and a green rubber saucer in the other.
she was heading nowhere in particular
when a curious interest drew her to the cupboards.


She flung open the nearest door
then leaned, crouched, and peeked
and finally reached into the congested cabinet
to extract a colorful box of dried mix soup,
she poked and squeezed the helpless box
then mercilessly ripped its top off
revealing four paper packages,
she pulled them out one by one
then laid them in a circle around her,
in turn she picked each one up
to examine as if each held a clue
to a puzzling mystery not to fathom
she gave up placing them back on the floor.


After awhile she tired of this
and looked around again
until her eyes widened
at the sight of a variety of beautiful cans
with pretty pictures of corn, peas, stringbeans, peaches and tomato sauce,
at first she just kneeled back and let out a squeal of delight
wildly waving her arms joyfully anticipating the fun yet to come,
as she began to grasp and tug the heavy tins
her expression quickly changed to one of serious intent,
for she realized this task would be long and difficult
perhaps as long as five minutes
which for a toddler can seem eternal.


The bulkier cans too cumbersome to lift
she would roll to the floor like they were logs,
she was especially enraptured by the ketchup bottle
with her favorite color of red glossy and taller than its peers,
she rolled it on the floor, patted it gently before
banging it against the scattered boxes and cans,
she even futilely gnawed at the cap
but that wouldn't work so she nonchalantly
abandoned the bottle for further adventure
on the far frontier near the dishwasher.


There she discovered still another cabinet
this one filled with pots and pans,
they appeared scorched and bland
compared to the rainbow variety label brands
left all over the floor of boxes packages and cans,
but on the other hand the pots when beaten
made a lot of noise like pretend drums
and they were fun to model as helmets.


Soon there were so many things on the kitchen floor
Jackie could not walk for tripping so she crawled
as she had for most of her life up till then,
perhaps perplexed she began to talk
with each of these items as if they were alive
let alone could understand her incoherent gibberish.


So she babbled for a time with the peanut butter jar
and even mumbled a few syllables to the jelly
but nothing happened no one moved until
finally she spotted her little yellow hammer
(her rubber saucer hopelessly buried in the recess of a cabinet)
the hammer became her magic wand
wielding it she laughed ever louder.


For something happened,
Jackie began to select and connect her inert items
arranging them into a make believe train
with a vinegar bottle for the engine
boasting a pickle jar for a caboose
and in between the cans converted to cars
strung out the length of the kitchen and beyond,
the pots and pans made for excellent gondolas
interspersed as they were along the choo choo's length,
Jackie giggled at her domestic carrier
inspecting her serpentine lustrous railroad line.


Before boarding she looked around once more for her lost saucer
but left without it bound for the familiar horizons of our modest home,
last I heard she was heading for the den
perhaps to leaf through the books shelved there,
a couple hundred volumes spread all over the rug
would make the journey well worth her trouble.



by L DOUGLAS ST OURS
December 2011