Robbing Hood
My supervisor ambled by one day
To tell me he was adding one more to my load:
A juvie no other counselor could reach.
What could I say?
Gerry was a worldly-wise fifteen,
A self-assured, well-spoken lad
Whose attitude was such
That nothing you could threaten mattered much.
He had a history, this young man,
A JD rap sheet that a decade spanned.
But what was curious to me
Was the final entry in his résumé.
Shoplifting candy bars from supermarket shelves,
I said. That seems beneath you,
Given your transgressions of years past.
He laughed. Skybars, Smores, Snickers, I amassed
Enough to sweeten lots of dreams.
You have a raging sweet tooth then, I said.
No, he replied. Sugar rots your teeth and gives you zits.
I was building up my stash for Halloween.
I live in Tower 6 on Forty-Fourth and Elm.
On Candy Eve the high-rise kids stay home,
Kept inside to keep them safe. This childhood rite
Held hostage to the dangers of the night.
But this time round, this year when darkness falls,
I will do trick-or-treating in reverse,
Carrying my sack of lifted sweets
Up and down each flight, down every hall,
Knocking on every door where there’s a tyke
(I know them all)
And offering each one a reach into my bag,
A taste of the tradition.
Dumbstruck, I shed all my prior postulations
Of this "delinquent," with his hoodie on
And his air of I-don’t-care-what-happens-here.
How often I’ve despaired of human nature,
Doubting accepted wisdom there’s good in every heart,
In every breast the seed of something fine.
But not this day.
2/13/2016
Twisted Poem about Robin Hood Contest
Copyright © Steve Grammatico | Year Posted 2016
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