Two Children on a Tuesday Morning

She's in her swing
asking for an un-duck
or under duck
or under dog
and I push her high and stall
for that climactic moment
when she is as tall as she can be
above the head of me
the adult, the nanny, the lady
who comes three times a week
to tell her brother to use friendly words,
to stop hitting her, and to go to his room.
He is behind her screaming
NO! JO JO! STOP HER SWING!
he is digging in the dirt
with his flat blue baby shovel
but to him it is large
and masculine and does the same work
as the shovel farmer Bill uses
in the field next door, he's
digging a tunnel, he says,
and its gonna go to the other side of the earth.
Actually, he is going to build four tunnels!
ONE FOR ME AND ONE FOR YOU AND ONE FOR JO JO
AND ONE FOR MANNY (the dog) who is
nearby whining or chewing on
a chunk of firewood
and later we look for seeds to plant
and we scavenge below the bird feeder
and under trees for pinecones,
and we grab a few of those crabapples that he is
convinced are cherries from the tree his parents
planted for him when he was born
he loves the tree
and talks about it even when its
out of sight
and from our bucket of gatherings JoJo
looks up and sees the moon bright in the
middle of our morning
MOOK UT! MOOOOK UT!
Her short fleshy finger points up
and there it is and her brother's
never seen anything like it
and his head turns diagonally and he smiles
and he asks, HOW IS THE MOON
OUT WHEN ITS DAYTIME?
It's always there, sometimes we just don't see it.