Head over heels

by Harry Calhoun

Tell me you’re not leaving.
Take away the God I prayed to
in my sky-blue boyhood bedroom
and asked to take my soul

if I died in my sleep. Take away
my Santa Claus and Christmas
but don’t take my heart-
felt childhood dream — you

and me with love between us.
Don’t take the four-leaf clover
I sought so long to pick

and keep pressed in my heart
like ZuZu’s petals
stored lovingly in daddy’s pocket