I Was A Snowman In First Grade For Halloween

Funny how you think being a snowman

is such a good idea

with your parents.

Your early creativity pumps through you

as you help your mom craft the costume,

pushing the white stuffing into the felt circles

for a body.

You hear how good you look

on the front stoop

in your white face paint

and bulky felt costume.

But then you go to school

and you look around at all of the other Batmen and Disney princesses

and your little snowman face gets red and hot

because they don’t have white stuffing falling from them

whenever they get out of their chairs to get a tissue.

They don’t have home-made costumes

or real sticks picked out from their backyards

to hold as snowman arms.

I walked home that day

without my hand-picked sticks,

face paint only lingering

around the edges of my face

from all of the scrubbing

I did over the bathroom sink.