Poetry

AP photo

By

Jill Crainshaw

funereal confections

i think it must have been peppermint

that he gave her

reaching out with

a sleight of hand

and a wisp of a smile

the day he buried his dad

cough drops are fine

butterscotch buttons too but

i think on that day

it was peppermint—

red bird peppermint puffs

to be precise

the kind that crinkles

when a piece escapes

from its cellophane wrapper

into your hand

one is enough

to savor a while

if you can keep from

biting into its sugary softness

crisp coolness tingling

your tongue with

sweet promise

Jill Crainshaw

Jill Crainshaw is a professor at Wake Forest University School of Divinity and a Presbyterian minister (PCUSA). Her work has appeared in The New Verse News, Star 82 Reveiw, and Panoplyzine. She is frequent contributor to the Patheos blog, Unfundamentalist Christians. She blogs atdrdeacondog.wordpress.com.