Candy Year

I dig through just-arrived groceries
for Cracker Jack and Pink Elephant Popcorn

hold cinnamon hearts tight with my tongue
till my mouth is on fire

pick sweating Smarties and licorice shoelaces
off the icing of my cake

sift through green cellophane straw
to find the last chocolate egg

gobble a bag of jujubes at the ball game
not tasting one

nibble a Mars bar alone in a London train station
and melt home in my mouth

stroll through the fair with sticky hands
and a cotton-candy-blue face

savor tart apples
dipped in gooey caramel

hoard the bulging pillowcase – M&Ms Chicklets
fuzzy peaches and toffees wrapped in orange and black

thrill my tongue to blisters with sour keys
in little brown bags from the corner store

sneak humbugs and allsorts
from the Christmas stash in the closet

study the map
to find the coffee cream

suck a candy cane to a pink skewer point,
making it last to the next candy year.

© 2002 – V. Nesdoly

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Have you ever noticed how almost every celebration has a candy to go along with it? A year in the language of candy is what I was trying to get across in “Candy Year,” which was first published in 2004 in Calendar.

And now to you a Happy New Year! May it be filled with sweets of all kinds!

Of Shepherds and Sheep

A flock of Saskatchewan sheep - © 2007 by V. Nesdoly

Abel spilled their blood
in the first acceptable sacrifice.

Abraham’s flocks flourished
though in the end
his son Isaac knew the terror
of lambs, lying bound on altar wood.

Joseph was sold to Egypt from the pasture
and the children of Israel
were segregated in Goshen
because shepherds were ‘unclean.’

Moses ran from the palace
to the mountains of Midian
where forty years as an apprentice
led to shepherding a nation.

David’s kingly character
was formed with the sheep
on Bethlehem’s hills,
for the Lord was his shepherd.

Isaiah foresaw Messiah-Lamb
and described us all
as confused and willful
wandering sheep.

Jesus would call Himself shepherd
and sheep-pen.
Even now He’s seated in heaven
a Lamb upon the throne.

What other audience was there, then,
for the angels that cold starry Judean night?

© 2007 by Violet Nesdoly

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Published in Family Reunion - Utmost Publishing, 2007

this is a poem 2

this is a poem about the last page
a poem about feeling panicked
a poem about lists
this is a poem about shopping and tired feet
about choosing the right card
then signing your name 47 times
a poem about wrapping paper, tape and ribbon
this is a poem about putting up lights and garland
bells and wreaths, while playing old records
a poem about finding mom’s recipe
and buying butter – for baking!
this is a poem about feasting
this is a poem about getting around
to reading the familiar story and wondering
how did something
that started out so simple
get to be so complicated?
this is a poem about Christmas

this is a poem about hearing the songs
of baby Jesus, at the mall
and having the urge to go
and sing them to all your neighbors
this is a poem about the magic
of blinking lights, toy trains
and sipping a cup of warm cocoa
while you visit the Holy Family
come to your cul-de-sac
this is a poem of when home
is the only place to be
even if the tree is small, the gifts few
and your house is crowded as a Bethlehem street
this is a poem about candlelight and sweet carols
in a place where simple gowns and sequin crowns
transform even urchins and scamps
into shepherds, angels and wise men
this too is a poem about Christmas

© 2009 by Violet Nesdoly

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This poem was first published (first stanza only, called ‘this is a poem’) in an anthology called Celebrating the Season 2001 – Essence Publishing, 2001. When I submitted it to another Christmas collection, the editor said it was too negative and suggested I write a second stanza, highlighting a more positive aspect of Christmas. That wasn’t hard to do – and so we have ‘this is a poem 2,’ published in its expanded form here for the first time (or at least I haven’t heard that it ever made it into that second anthology – or even whether that anthology was ever published).