Amy Carpenter-Leugs

TWO WEEKS AFTER THE TOWERS FALL

You are three; we play Candy Land so I
can imagine every sweet thing on your tongue.

Each colored space on the game board
is a rosary bead.

Yellow sunlight in early autumn,
a blue tie that flutters

as a man falls and falls.
Orange traffic cones set feebly around rubble,

green twisted metal
on the edge of fury and gash.

The candy colors so bright they are fake.
So let it be unreal, all of it.

You land on purple, the color of royalty.
I pray for our noble natures to be resurrected.

My card sends me back to Peppermint Forest.
How good it will be to start over.

At Candy Castle, the very end, you wait for me.
You want us both to win.

Amy Carpenter Leugs has written poems and nonfiction appearing in Voices, Peninsula Poets, The 3288 Review, and Parabola magazines. She is the author of three children's books dealing with issues of poverty and difference, all published by UCOM Open Door Press. Amy resides in Grand Rapids, MI with her husband, their three sons, and the wildlife of Plaster Creek.