Verse: Cereal

(For @crumbsey. Sorry it was so long in coming...)

There was HR Pufnstuf
and Lidsville

where everybody
had a hat for a head

there was the Banana Splits
George of the Jungle

and the Jackson 5
wanted me back

for years I thought
they were just a cartoon

every week
was like Christmas

I could hardly
sleep at all

waiting for
Saturday morning

jumping up and down
on the couch

wrestling with my brother
during the commercials

but never during
Bugs Bunny

that hour
was sacrosanct

I was not
a Disney kid

except for
the Jungle Book

I collected all
the little plastic figurines

yellow Baloo and
blue King Louie

their arms hooked
like the barrel of monkeys

from Nabisco
part of a good breakfast

sitting there
at my little table

in the dining room
in my pajamas and robe

with a slime-green box
of Apple Jacks

drinking the last
drops of warm milk

from my Woody Woodpecker
hollow log cereal bowl

listening to Freda Payne
singing love me like you tried before

Ooh Child
and the Stylistics

(Russell, I swore
you were a lady)

and mom
humming along in the kitchen

I'm never far
from such memories

they nourish me
even now.