Candy Store
June 29, 2009
bang bang bang
eight o’clock am
two barefoot white kids in cut off jeans
stand at the back door
of a black family’s residence
in the quarters
change in hand for the candy store
a few minutes pass and
(we hear her before we see her)
the ‘Candy Lady’ as we called her
comes to the door dressed in what could
only be described as a muumuu only
more like a house dress if there were
such a thing
we file in and start looking
through the freezer for ice cream
sandwiches (which were our favorites but
which she sold out of the most)
homemade and handmade and for
“fo-fi cent” (as she used to say)
you couldn’t beat ‘em
she had drinks and candy bars
and ice cream in small dixie cups
and gum and cinnamon candy that turned
your spit blood red (which we took advantage
of at every opportunity) and which we bought the
most since they were only “fi cents” apiece and
we typically had fifty cents between us
that was almost thirty years ago
surely she would be long dead
the old black “Candy Lady” who dealt
candy out the back door to us kids
while her husband dealt pot and sometimes
a little cocaine out of the front to our parents
bang bang bang
I could use some candy right now
-Lewis Applequist 2009
haiku challenge answered
June 11, 2009
Hey, this is a bunch of Haikus..
“God, he’s dead, he’s dead!”
I could hear my Aunt screaming
the day my Dad died.
A red Volkswagen
filled with drunks for the Oz trip
never made it home
This year marks thirty
thirty long years gone away
he was twenty-six
Spooky – Halloween
on October thirty-first
his birthday no more
I was barely six
but the shit had started up
and hasn’t slowed yet
Death is always here
mocking, laughing, eternal
our life so finite
-Lewis Applequist 2009
