Sestina For a Forgotten Cousin Midget
Sestina for a Forgotten Cousin Midget
Kids are midgets
Like gnats, infested around the water
Melons buried in ice
Moms mixing up grape and lime Kool-Aid
Smoke smolders from reddened charcoal
Hot dog buns muffle family reunion noise
From the bath house comes a noise
Like some frozen midget
Who is lost, not smelling the reunion-warm charcoal
Small eyes water
Cousins curl their necks swallowing Kool-Aid
That slips down their throats like ice
The bath house midget shivers, turning to ice
Blue, making a whining noise
He doesn’t beg for Kool-Aid
He was with the other midgets
But didn’t leave the water
Until he thought of barbeque charcoal
Eyes wide, black and warm like charcoal
He doesn’t see the watermelon on ice
Or the purple and green water
Cousin midgets’ fingers play in Kool-Aid with slurping noise
Frightened wet midget
Doesn’t see the hotdogs and Kool-Aid
A parent drops her glass of grape Kool-Aid
Another slips his fork into the charcoal
Runs to the soaked, crying midget
A small cousin sucks on ice
His is the only noise
The sound of slurping tongue and water
The crying one looks at the swimming water
And at the grape and lime Kool-Aid
Picking his nose, a sniffling noise
Hungry for hot dogs over charcoal
And watermelon over ice
Feeling like a forgotten midget
He was in the water when he smelled the picnic charcoal
The others ran for Kool-Aid and melon ice
Reunion noise forgot their cousin midget
Copyright © Jeff Reed | Year Posted 2016
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