Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine #12

Cotton Candy Who could have guessed it would go so fast?

In a child’s hand time does not pass.

We heard no warning words, nor even an echo when the screen door slammed we ran melting into the world like spun sugar.

Who could have guessed how delicate we'd be -how crystalline and needy?

We never considered how damned, how ephemeral, sugar whirling from the cooker.

So many things we could have done -stirred slower, worn gloves -- had we known how delicately sharp the threads of love, how brief sweetness on the tongue.

Rose Marie Eash