The kids have helped me playing solitaire.
It lets them learn their numbers and each suit.
They touching put the cards most moments where
I guide them, fingers poking, faces cute.
It hasn’t been my motive to compare,
but there are differences I won’t dispute.
Our heads abut, I smell their silky hair,
and note the variations of astute.

At nearly 4, one wants to press the sign
that launches auto-solve and then, transfixed,
she sees the cards fall smoothly into line
with sound effects. The other ever picked
each card, in order forming neat array:
the end the same, the means a separate way.