Appreciating An Artful Life

This is an artful life.
It is.
Just look
at the pile
of brightly colored, plastic
Little Tykes toys,
tumbling over each other
across the carpet,
Smell the coffee
too hot to drink
in the awkward mug
that little hands
stretched into shape.
Listen to Mac say,
I like James' work,
as he studies crayon markings
on a college ruled page.
Hesitate to scrub
the mural of people
a family
off of the playroom wall--

maybe I'd like to be
big ears, long legs and a round head.

I'll bake an apple pie for you,
if you promise just to eat it,
or if you celebrate the caved in quality
of its collapseable crust,
its sugary puddles;

I'll bake for you
if you appreciate the hands
that turned on the oven.
If you appreciate
the scent of pie baking;
If you appreciate
its cinammon taste.