You could see the lights from a mile away,
a cyberspace landscape
dusted with funnel cake sugar
and cigarette ashes.
I counted the colors:
candy-coated pink and green for the slides,
an acidic yellow for the lemonade stand,
red and blue bled together to make purple
as the ferris wheel spun.
Ma squeezed my hand and said,
“Stay close.”
It was easy for a small child
to get lost among the fluorescence,
and the fog of passing patrons,
and the festival of stars sparkling
above us in the abyss of night.
Maggie Dickinson-Sherry is a third-year student at University Park majoring in English and minoring in gender studies. She writes: “This semester I have the honor of serving as both Music Editor and Kalliope Liaison here at Klio. You can also find me over at Klio’s sister magazine, Kalliope, where I am the Arts Coordinator. I have loved poetry my entire life-some of my favorite poets include Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and Sylvia Plath.”