A Black Cat

It was a windy day

when Ricky,

my next-door neighbor,

came to me wanting to set off

a Black Cat firecracker.

Scrounging around

we found some matches

and agreed to set it off in the sandbox.

We asked another neighbor

to help with blocking the wind

so Ricky could light the firecracker.

As we tightly huddled

around that tiny little Black Cat

elevated in the sand,

Ricky struck the first match

inside the circle of hands

surrounding the firecracker.

But the wind snuffed it out

before he could reach the fuse.

So we moved even closer together

to give Ricky a better chance

to light the fuse.

When he struck the second match,

in his haste Rickey missed

the tip of the fuse

and lit the base instead.

In an instant, there was a loud bang!

Sandblasted, we all fell backward

in shell-shock!

Our only injury was a close brush

with scared-to-death.

Ricky ran pretty fast that day

from the circle of hands.

Maybe there is something

about a black cat

crossing your path.