Poor Sweet Kids Poem by Curtis Johnson

POOR SWEET KIDS
By Curtis Johnson

We sure did love the lollipops, the cracker jacks, the Holloway candy sticks, the chocolate coated ice cream bars, and those tootsie rolls.
We simply could not get enough of the pop sickles, the cool aids, and the soda pops. We sang a love song saying, “Ice cream, soda water, cream on top, tell me the name of your sweet heart”.
We had the best tasting cookies and cigarette candies that eyes had ever seen. We were just poor kids in America’s poorest state; but no kids were sweeter than us. We were hot as fire; we were hassled and harassed by humidity and drops of sweat: but we were sweet. Life was hard in this little Mississippi delta town. But somewhere between hard work and chores
Somewhere between feeding the chickens and the cows Somewhere between feeding the goats and the hogs Somewhere between watching TV and doing home work
Somewhere between the sun up and the sun down Somewhere between the dawn and the dust. Yes, in between, we found time to play.
Most times we were okay, didn’t go astray, and had lots of fun in the barns, playing in the hay.
We rolled the rubber tires like driving fast cars; we laughed out loud as we sucked our whining balls.
Money was always lacking, but I tell you, we did our share of licking, of chewing, and of sucking the sweet stuff
We sure did manage to get a lot for the few pennies and nickels and dimes that we had.
We could buy our treats cheap back then; so we did our very best to stay sweet, chewing bubble gum filled with sugar

We didn’t have a care; we learned how to share; and the sweet stuff was always there.cj013008