This is our 500^th week­ly col­umn, and we want to thank the news­pa­pers who pub­lish us, the poets who are so gen­er­ous with their work, our spon­sors The Poet­ry Foun­da­tion, The Library of Con­gress, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka-Lin­coln Eng­lish Depart­ment, and our many read­ers, in print and on line.

Almost every week I read in our local news­pa­per that some cus­to­di­al par­ent has had to call in the law to stand by while a child is trans­ferred to its oth­er par­ent amidst some post-divorce hos­til­i­ty. So it’s a plea­sure to read this poem by Elise Hempel, who lives in Illi­nois, in which the trans­fer is attend­ed only by a lit­tle heartache.