Ashes Denote: An Uninsured Playhosue

I tried to tell my boys
that it was unwise to
invest in toddler real estate
in Kansas.

The winds are too high
too often.
The storms rage and the
creaking, wooden walls
and rusting nails
just won’t hold up.

But they didn’t listen.
Even worse,
they didn’t even bother to call
their agent to insure it.
I am sure the
premiums were simply
too high.

But the fall of 2025 came through
with a raging storm
and violent winds
that upturned their entire playhouse.

We found it upside down
ten yards over
in the yard
with wobbled boards
breaking at the seams
cracking in between
the door askew on the bending hinges
as the roof lost its peak
it also lost it’s voice to speak
of future days of play.

Deconstruction to disassembling
became strategic dismembering
which led to our newfound
ritual for remembering.

Every piece of plastic
was ripped apart from the wood
so we threw what we could
into the fire and watched the
last of the playhouse memories
burn.

And an unsettling fear set in
for I’ve watched my own
childhood memories burn and
drift away like smoke and ash
that settle into the ground
like remnants of a Departed Creature
who has lost all shape and form.

Now, they only exist in microscopic particles
of dust somewhere in my mind.

How much of this broken, burnt-up house
will my own children remember?

Will they remember the day
they built it with
their own two hands
with dad
while mommy was away
on a mini, mommy vacay?

Will they remember learning
how to grill a wooden hotdog
and falling in love
with the wonderful, innocent play of
mimicking dad?

Will they remember carrying
piles of rocks
and buckets of sand
to the sink
like berries to be washed and cleaned?

Will they remember the shelter it gave
to all their tools and trucks and toys?

Will they remember the memories
they shared
with all of the friends
they invited there?

Will they remember anything
about it
at all?

Or will they simply toss
the final board
of the playhouse
into the fire
and watch the ashes fall
into dust and
say goodbye
to these early childhood memories
forever?