The Honeycutts

As a child

I'd visit our neighbors

frequently

mostly for

a nip or two

from the fully stocked

candy dishes

carefully arranged

throughout the kitchen

and living room

but also for

the warm attention

of the missus

and the patient tolerance

of the mister

both accepting

of my child-self

from a kind

and comfortable

remove.

They were perhaps

my first friends

odd to say

as I was four

and they were in their 50's

but their openness

and generosity of spirit

lingers in my memory
and grows

upon reflection.