My childhood road trips were bliss;
shared the Chevy’s back seat with my sis.
back then, all we would need
were some good books to read,
and thus peacefully we’d co-exist.

Well, that is, till we started to bother
one another; then out came mom’s swatter!
She’d whack with abandon,
her blows rarely landin’
upon disobedient daughter.

Now with my girls, the cross I must bear,
hoping road trips don’t lead to despair.
Still, I hear myself utter
the words of my mother–
“Don’t you dare make me come on back there!”

©2013 Carlotta Eike Stankiewicz