tootsie roll club

tootsie roll club

when I remember you, 

I think of 

the both of us

huddled beneath

the dining room table, 

between us 

those sticky candies

packed

in an old cookie tin, 

stuck together 

since who knows when.

us laughing children, 

brought together by

the crinkling of wrappers, 

by little secrets passed

from lip to ear. 

my wrinkled nose,

because I hated 

those long-expired candies 

and the prying eyes of family, 

their plastic sweetness 

smothering my tongue.

But you smiled 

so widely 

with chocolate staining

your teeth rot-brown

and

how could I not

do the same?