Funfair

Content Warning: Mental Health

I want to wrap you in cotton candy 

And let the sugar-spun serotonin 

Sweeten your synapses 

Icing on a helter-skelter smile 

Styled behind a giant teddy bear 

Won in a game rigged against you 

You, who I hold in the hall of mirrors 

Your smile a reflection of something you once felt

Melting as your mind wanders to something else

Beyond the twinkling of the carousel’s cassette

Forgetting whisps of wintered memories

Woven in rollercoasters and teacup rides

Our laughter in the waves of the water slide

I stand beside your ghost in the haunted house

Then lead you to the Merry-Go-Round

Where we spin into silky silence 

And I try to wrap you in cotton candy

Until there is nothing I can do 

But hold your hand 

As your cotton candy soul 

Dissolves in the rain 

---

Cover photo by Bernadetta Watts