Green Tracks

he pondered his train set
wooden tracks
angry
“i want green tracks!”
but wooden tracks are better
i don’t know where to buy
green tracks
green plastic tracks

drive in rain
one toy store
then another
my son quiet and anxious
in the little boy aisle
i see wooden tracks
grey tracks
no green tracks

we finally buy
grey tracks
one step closer
to green

i help him snap tracks
together
show him new plastic
train cars
uncertain
he plays with it for awhile

bored
he goes back to play with
the wooden tracks
travels our living room
one track at a time
i put the new train
new plastic grey tracks
in a box
in the closet

@Bonnie Pignatiello Leer
(Published in The Wilderness House Literary Review, Fall 2007)