BJZ Poems and Musings

We have spent at least a week of the summer in Leelanau County, Michigan for the past 30 years, staying at a place called Fountain Point – an historic property with a white clapboard, red-roofed old hotel building with surrounding cottages. It is a place where we seek relaxation, reconnection with family and friends, and meet new people each year. This poem, written in the summer of 2000, is about our son, then six, meeting another 6 year old as they played on the lovely grounds of Fountain Point. My vantage point was a lawn chair near a sidewalk as they were making a big circle around the hotel. It was a precious moment, and I decided to record it with a simple poem.

Scooter Girl

Scooter girl on a
Silver scooter is circling
In front of my lawn chair –
Every two minutes she reappears;
She is cute, and I tell her as much –
Each revolution I learn a bit more –
She is six, born June 2nd,
And her name is Molly,
It is her brother’s scooter,
And the brake is on the back wheel –
You just press down with your foot

Our little Ethan, also six, is enamored
With scooter girl, and follows on his bike;
The two now circle, she will not
Let him ride her brother’s scooter –
He offers her a piece of banana bread
With chocolate chips; yes, she says;
From the cottage he yells, big or little?
Big, she says

Now her father calls, urgently,
Wait a minute she says,
I need to get something;
Ethan gives Molly the banana bread;
Thanks. Do you like it?
Yes. Molly! Now!
She scooters down the
Sidewalk and disappears behind
A big spruce;
Ethan takes a few steps sideways
To get a glimpse of her father,
To see what he has to contend with,
Then he pedals back to me –
She’s nice – are my noodles ready?

Brian J. Zink August 2000 Copyright rules apply