Candy Closet

One Heaven on the doorstep
two moons in the sky,
three angels on the pavement
four cars passing by.

Five devils on a corner
six dice roll fate,
seven grows fat
into a jellied eight.

Nine in the morning
breakfast by ten,
eleven children hunt
for the twelfth in his den.

Thirteen unlucky cats
chased by fourteen angry dogs,
fifteen silver witches
weaving spells with sixteen frogs.

On the road at seventeen
driving teacups around the bend,
eighteen brings the litter drunks
with hangovers which never end.

Nineteen gothic paintings
in twenty dustybooks,
twenty one talking mirrors,
twenty two hiding crooks.

Soft chocolate coffins
twenty three in a row,
twenty four melting snowmen
waiting eagerly for snow.

Twenty five, twenty six
on and on it sings,
quietly in my mind at night
curious bloody things...

@steven francis poems 1995