A wish

I was a child of the city, and the city was my concrete jungle gym. As children, we used to chase after milkweed seeds, those airborne puffs of soft white with a tiny dark brown seed attached. We called them "wishes." If you were lucky enough to catch a "wish," you merely had to cup one in your hands, make a wish, and release it.

I've been seeing a lot of those lately and tried many times to catch one. I "semi-caught" one the other day after it was stuck in a spider web. I couldn't really cup it because I was effectively grossed out by the debris and the web. I held it by one of the white tendrils, made my wish, and released it, whereupon it fell to the ground given its added weight.

But this afternoon, I saw a wish within my reach. I was scrambling down the sidewalk on the ground and finally caught it. I made my wish. And then I released it and watched it as it floated away in the air.