Eight-year-old Jennifer

bounced from foot to foot,

Mickey Mouse ears lopsided

on straight brown hair.

Voice full of bubbles,

she told sagging parents

about the next Disneyland

rides on her list.

In the parking lot

lights made diamonds

of the crumbled glass on the ground,

the window of her dad's car

framed in fragments.

Oh no, Jennifer wailed

at the empty space

on the back seat.

While her father

smothered his curses,

used the cell phone

to call for help, Jenny cried

for fifteen minutes

over her stolen favorite purse.

Pink it was, with bright brass

snap, a white rose pinned

on the side, long strap

that shouldered, or wrapped

around her waist.

The only thing in the car

taken, Jenny's purse

held one single dollar,

a postcard for her best friend,

the growing-up dreams

of one little girl.

Biography

Patricia Wellingham-Jones, former psychology researcher/writer/editor, has been published in journals, newspapers, anthologies, and online. Her most recent books are Don‚t Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, Labyrinth: Poems & Prose, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level and Lummox Press Little Red Book series, A Gathering Glance. She lives in northern California.