Sharon Kennedy-Nolle’s most recent poem to appear here was “First Offenses” (October 2018). 

Sonnet in Tantrum
By Sharon Kennedy-Nolle

The party over, our kids come tripping in a tiptop day
With a clutch of colors, goody bags in tow.
After backseat brawling, they’re eager to show the Haribos,
Dots, nerds; now squabbling over laffy-taffy trades
You start scowling, peeved over this joking in spades
Too much sugar—it’s always the little things that trigger
Your demands for surrender; no treats for bad behavior.
They laugh and run, trying to transform yell to game.
You give chase and catch up; wrench one wrist
until all’s out of hand; undeterred, spoiled twerps,
the children scream and dive for the Swedish Fish
who swim in the trash you’ve dumped to stomp the sweets,
jumping as if on some flaccid trampoline, you jerk
till tie-dyed dust rainbows the floor in poor, runed wish.