I played dominoes on the front steps,
all the time looking knee high
for your red-and-white striped socks,
and Pippi Longstocking legs.
I matched nines and missed the first
jack flash of your stick-thin legs
as they gained the corner of
Minnehaha Avenue.
My frilly little girl friends
giggle-giggled at the conjuration
of my bespectacled
bean-pole sister.
Especially Betsy, from kitty-corner
across the street with three tiers
of starched flounces and the complete
Betty-Homemaker kitchen,
And the tomboy sister
of the boy-next-door, who, while
showing his weenie and eating
a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich,
swallowed a bee.
from Denise Weaver Ross’ Midwest by Northeast by Southwest available HERE
