What kind of candy would Sappho eat?
Bit-o-honey

And who would eat a strawberry Charleston Chew? Frozen,
with grape soda from the church camp canteen, like I did?

Not Wonder Woman. Not, I think, Agatha Christie. Not
Lady MacBeth or the actual Virginia Woolf.

Maybe Bessie Smith would. Maybe she and I would
though candy bars are not transhistorical I
acknowledge and she'd have something harder and
I would too, I just wonder.

Like about green apple jolly ranchers and
chocolate turtles and pixie sticks
and the private stash in the back of the fridge of, if she could,
Clytemnestra, Tituba,  John the Baptist.

If she weren't so obviously fig Newton or chocolate-covered
almonds, what would the Queen of Sheba get from the
candy counter of the convenience store? Peanut butter cups?
And what would Jesus do? I can't believe he'd just get
whatever you were getting or say no thanks, none for me. I think
he'd buy gummy pop bottles. He'd always be still eating his
candy long after you'd finished your brief chocolatey mess.

Don't tell my mother anything.

And Eve, mother of all
candy. She'd eat them all.