Candy Canes

"Candy Canes" by Kathryn Jackson                       

VINTAGE VERSE: "Candy Canes" by Kathryn Jackson
from the IDEALS Christmas Magazine 1957

Candy canes have the nicest way
Of lasting long after Christmas Day.
For, after you've eaten two from down low,
And maybe one from up high -
You just can't manage to eat some more
No matter how hard you try.

But after the Christmas tree is gone,
And the cookies and chocolate, too -
And it's February, and dark and gray,
And there's nothing much to do,
And you wish for something to nibble on
While it sleets and freezes and rains,
Why, up on the shelf is a big glass jar,
There are always some candy canes.

They're mostly always
broken in bits,
And sticky, and
stuck with pine,
And hard to unstick,
and hard to get out -
But they taste
most specially fine,

All broken the size to fit your mouth,
All syrupy, peppermint sweet,
All Christmas red and white, and then -
Why, there's nothing so good to eat
As candy canes, with their very nice way
Of lasting long after Christmas Day.