Jelly and Butter Peanut

A nut sits waiting

Sheltered in a case
The shell plating,
Brittle. In an enclosed white space,
You hang,
In limbo.
Repeating the same thing.
In an imaginary forest of bamboo.
Suddenly
A CLANG.
A PANG.
All in your head.
Jelly and butter peanut.
The milky walls
Transform to a cherry red
And lemon yellow
Striped circus tent.
Jelly and butter peanut.
Now a new sensation:
Wrapped in basket weave
The hair on his skin
Untaut by the fizzing fire

Jelly and butter peanut!

Figments, delirium, lunacy
Are shielded with ideal realism
Yet you can no longer
Recall a rose’s redolence.
His mother drove it down the baby’s throat
The richness fuses with sugary preserves
As it triumphs on his tongue
And ever since he hugs himself.

by Matt Moores