writing prompt: barbed wire

walking
back from the library
i see a group of men throwing
a football in the yard such a
wholesome American scene
like something out of
This is Us
my anxiety
doubles, thick in my throat, i walk faster, i stumble

*

my grandmother tells of how
during the occupation the nazi soldiers
would give her candy
and let her ride on their horses
i imagine barbed wire
a hand through it
i imagine the horses
the candy hard, the cold, but there probably
never was any, barbed wire, i should have asked, what kind of candy
did the horses
lick the hands, what did it smell like, was it summer or winter, the picture is incomplete
and fading

*