Buttons

I am five
It’s winter
Slush outside
My sibs and I are
Lying about the living
Room on pallets of folded
Blankets keeping our hands
Warm on mugs of hot chocolate
As our mother empties a large
Jar of buttons on the floor
Between us so we can
Sort the shiny exotic
Buttons into two or
More of a kind to
Be used by my
Older sisters
To sew on
Missing
Buttons if
We find any
Matches even
Close and some
Of us fall asleep with
A covering blanket as the
Buttons are returned to their
Jar mixed up until next time
We need some diversion
And a nap never tiring
Of the search game
Matching buttons.
Linnaeus would
Be proud of us
Sorting the
Buttons
Practice for
All the things
And people we
Would later sort.
And, if it snowed
We knew where to
Find the black buttons
For a snowman’s shiny eyes.