The little girl pads

on sleepy feet

to the warmth of her parents’ bed.

Mother has since gone to

prop herself

on the livingroom couch

to nurse a blocked nose.

The boy wakes up early,

before dawn,

in his trademark twisted mass of blankets and

body parts on the floor

beside his bed.

He tiptoes with comic books past

his propped up mother

to read in peace on the guest bed.

He thinks he is alone.

Sometime after dawn

the sleepy father stirs

and wakes up

to his daughter’s wonder at the rain

and her wide eyes.