Licorice

Caedro

It was around Winter's day, that rapid snowy time.
I was out buying hot treats loved by my kid brother and I.
Snow fell like bullets unlike any year before.
Yet these flakes punched cotton jabs to my face,
so it was massaging through the core.
And before I knew of it, Skene's store rendered to view.
Foggy gaze without the sticking, I could further deal.
Once in, I greeted a high hand to the tough yet humble vintage granny.
Per usual, a nod she gave with her feet on the counter,
chewing on some antique-type candy.
But oh well, manners extraneous in an owned space, I suppose...

Yeah, candies salt and sweets, the melts and rockies laid encircling me.
'Just myself' I had thought, to just notice the dude at the back corner in front of the jellies.
Taller than me and staring too deeply.
I ignored him at first since he could just be deciding,
the flavor to his tongue's craving.
But after a few minutes picking one of each, the dude was still there lost at jelly.
My last picking..
Peeked at granny, she wouldn't give a duck.
She'd care no less if it were the richest smuck.
So, I approached him with some uneasiness.
Thinking he might be restless,
Maybe blind, deaf or slightly uneven.
Bet...
Leave him hanging though,
that ain't me, no,
and before I raised my voice,
his face panned toward me — oh.
His stare mirrored the weather,
that shit was cold...
I lost all cinders of thought,
even the stuff I was always told.
Only till two beams seared my back,
Coming from the very old.
"Yo o wow saa!
That crazy stings!!!"
About face and memory returned to me..
Everytime she does that her eyes would go "ping"!
But she only gets like that when something's gone interesting.
Interesting?
Nah, that wouldn't be any of this?!
But I remembered the dude I was trying to assist.
Returned face, the dude wasn't there.
My eyes widened to bulge their outer rims,
Upon the second ring of a cash register's brim.

Dude was behind or in front? checking out,
leaving..
Didn't even notice him move
Nor move quickly.
"How could that be, man?"
How could that be, ma'am?
Wouldn't dare ask vintage over there.
Smiling a horizontal Saint Elias snare,
approaching her meant ignoring that snare.
Funny Man of Steeplechase oud'be proud of her glare.
Though, that ain't me, yo,
The whole clown game, no no..
Seldom 'Vintage' becomes that way..
Pearly-eyes must've poked a giggly ossein.
Had no choice to confront her, though,
'cus all this candy ain't gonna chew itself whole.
Still knacking my brain of what took place,
stood the nearer of her and I
and the candy on counter's plate.

One by one various candy sat on the weighs.
On any normal day, my mind would be glued to its sugary strain.
Today,
That wasn't the case.
Too far from any day, today
distinctive to those other days.
On Everest forward Autumn plays,
per usual, weather couldn't null my ways.
No matter what today'd demonstrate.
My way served my days.
But my way was seductively swayed,
outlooking the dude's pace.
Till the snow covered his shade
Till it covered his personage.
However, his stare remained engraved on my visage.
Wo — and the steering returned half-hearted,
forcing me about Skene's direction.
A heavy pound of sweets wrapped graciously
within a brown bag,
wrapped by silver twining.
This Old Lady held her smile passing me the bag,
and I wondered what she and Pearly-eyes vocal exchange was telling.
If any a tad,
if any at all..?
Impossibly no exchange, I'm sure?
But she held out her hand long enough
so I could grab the sweet stuff.
Nothing but a dough exchange between us sprung.
I couldn't wait leaving Skene's store fast stat.
Snatched off dulce from her skeleton hands, speed walking toward the door's projection.
My hand over its stem, vibrated aflutter—

"They've returned, they've returned,
an 'original's' returned-"
Is what crazy muttered,
drooling a fountain's croon.
As God as my witness, my ass skedaddled like Usain,
no more! I thought,
I'm never coming back again.
Better to make venture further out dwelling,
8 miles out to the next nearest confectionery.
Nothing shook me at all before now.
If not for that dude, well, if not for my craving...
Would I've ever known of this strange meeting?!
And still, what was meant as a single encounter,
encountered faculty months over.
Being watched by jocks after school bell's tong,
Pearly-eyes walked away on the opposite section,
gone rover.