Beetlebung and Kettlehole--April Poems

No Sweets for Me (for Boston)

No sweets for me
take every grace away
for honeyed laughter can be wicked
behind witch-eyes and charms

No sweets for me
not from your cauldron hanging
over our children’s heads
let no one know such savor

No sweets for me
sugarplums do not dance
while bats fly about our faces
and bombs terrify the innocent folk

No sweets for me
for I am a staring wreck
at this flood of shame and blood,
unforgiving the all-forgetting

No sweets for me
but give me wisdom
from the cracked bones of terror
in this world of fear and shock

No sweets for me
place me among the outlaws
followers of a lost cause
for a planet at peace.

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Prompt: Sweets for the sweet