While driving west
through the dark
toward home, she looks
out the window and says,
Hey, Mom, a wishing star,
and I fight the urge
to correct her and say,
It’s a planet. Instead,
I tell her, Tonight
there are unlimited
wishes. She is silent
for a long, long time,
and at last she says,
There, now that’s a good one.
Meantime, I find myself wishing
for the days when Vivian
took great delight in whispering
to me her wishes.