[Critique Group 1] Leonard's comments on Sally's March sub

[tuchyner5 at aol.com]

This is a sweet memoire poem of your  deceased father. 

And, an ode to jellybeans. 

Whether they were good for him or not, 

they held a certain important place in his life, 

a spot of joy in a beleaguered life. 

When you gave the jellybeans to him, 

you were giving him jewels of taste-bud love from you. 

A beautiful tribute

 

                                                                JELLYBEANS

 

Too sticky and sweet for my taste,

a dish of jelly beans, nonetheless,

sits on my kitchen table in case

my father’s spirit drops by

for a handful of his favorite Easter treat.

 

Not for him the generic jelly bean

or the exotic flavors of gourmet brands,

each Spring he craved a bag of tiny pastel 

mid-range candies found on his small town’s

drug store or supermarket shelves.

 

A retired printer of small means

and giant medical bills from the cancer

spreading throughout his frail frame,

he bought a bag and made it last,

savoring the familiarity and heightened sweetness.

 

>From a city eighty miles away,

I carried bags of them when

My husband and I visited on weekends.

Other times, I stalked the jelly beans my father

Might not be alive to enjoy next year.

Long before internet shopping,  

I mailed the candies knowing

they would bring joy amid medical intrusions.

 

When his kidneys failed and cancer triumphed,

one bitter Winter day, I wished,

against all odds, for a bag of

sugary love from a warmer season

to place upon the mounds of earth on his grave.
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