Carissa, at the Church Carnival

Black hair shining, always in your eyes but never seeming to bother you, you never brush it away, doesn't it tickle your nose?

face painted like a pink cat with black lips and whiskers, a little black nose, your flip flops tossed aside

you're jumping

you're sliding

you're laughing

your teeth so white

beside your little black cat lips!

your sister so quiet, following you, following you, would do nothing without you, would be pulling at me instead of laughing, her shoes next to yours in the sun

and your brother sits in a strange mood in the bed of the truck eating his second funnel cake, wearing a balloon hat and a balloon sword, eating, eating, his back to the crowd

you are the sunshine of the day, little black haired darling, a pink princess kitten with no shoes