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

****************

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!