Penny Candy

Many moons since penny candy, 
licorice sticks in red, black, brown,
eyeing and pointing, and old Eddie
filling the bag piece by piece with

jawbreakers, tootsie rolls, peanut
butter cups, dots on white paper,
licorice shaped like a record that
unwound in your mouth, kool-aid

inside a paper straw, you tore off
the top and poured the kool-aid
down your throat undiluted, many
moons, many undiluted moons ago.