Candied Kiss

Oberon Literary Magazine, 2019

 

On our first date we volunteered at the Shriner’s Circus

stationed together in the cotton candy tent

the wind howled, incensed it could not peek in at our fun

it beat at the tent flaps and worked its way in

 

It flipped bits of pink flossed sugar

into our hair

into our ears

into the air we breathed

 

Strawberry sugar filled our nostrils

melted on our tongues

adhered in sticky sheets to our skin

assaulted our senses with sweetness

 

We chased the floating strands

with twirling cardboard cones

and shoved them huge and ripe

into plastic bags for hawking in the stands.

 

Then giggling we groomed each other like gorillas

till our cheeks met and stuck together

in a spastic sort of kiss

just as my father opened the tent flap

 

True Love

Love Without Borders Anthology, 2017

 

True Love doesn’t come and go.

True love’s not a game.

It’s the Creator of the Universe

who knows me by my name.

 

True Love’s not a pretty face.

It isn’t diamond rings.

It sees me in my ugliness,

invites me among kings.

 

True Love’s not a list of rules,

a game of life to win.

It’s longing just to please Him

and to grow to be like Him.

 

True Love’s not a husband

or a wife to hold in bed.

It bore my shame and

wore a crown of thorns upon its head.

 

True Love’s not a baby’s sigh

or life without a care.

It’s knowing that whatever comes,

peace will find me there.

 

True Love’s not a fairy tale.

It died upon a tree.

It spent three days in torment

then came back to rescue me.

 

And when I know I’ve failed Him,

just when my cover’s blown,

True Love wraps Its robe around me

and presents me as Its own.

 

​

I am the Lord’s Puppy

Poets of the Promise, 2019

 

I am the Lord’s puppy, I shall not want.

He taketh me to green dog runs.

He leadeth me beside shady curbs.

He picketh up my poop.

 

Yea, though I walk past the house

with the fifteen big dogs,

I will not fear being eaten,

for thou art with me.

My collar and leash, they comfort me.

 

Thou prepareth my dinner

in a bowl with my name on it

and putteth ice cubes in my water dish.

My joy overflows!

 

Yea, though I chew on the couch or poop on the rug,

Thou forgiveth me.

Thou teacheth me not to jump up on visitors.

Thou batheth me in the kitchen sink.

 

Surely I shall dance in Thy footsteps all the days of my life

and curl up at the foot of Thy bed each night Forever.

​

 

The Leprechaun’s Favorite Request

Rhyme and PUNishment, 2019

 

Oh, sometimes they ask for money,

And sometimes they ask for love,

And one little boy from Kilarney

Asked for a new baseball glove.

 

But my bestest, most favorite request of them all,

The one I most chuckled to hear,

Was the one when young Sally McGipper McGee

Asked to deck Sam McGipper Mcgreer.

 

He’d been pullin’ her pigtails and stealin’ her gum

And makin’ her cry every day.

Every time that young Sam came a-skippin’ to her

She wished she could wish him away.

 

So I granted her wish, filled her up with a rage

And a fist weighted up like a train.

She laid him out flat in the mud by the lake

And left him to squelch in the rain.

​