Jack, My Blue Eyed Boy (Jack and the Beanstalk poem revised)

Jack, My Blue Eyed Boy

I kissed him once when he was six

that giant you killed

licked the apple from his lips

He grew taller when he was eight

past the highest garden gate

taller than the eaves of houses

by the time he was twenty

I never knew where

he disappeared to

some said he ascended

like Jesus to the land beyond

shrouded in clouds

his eyes like wisps of dusk

You were so proud of spying on him

from behind the salt shaker

as he sat weeping over a porridge bowl

while the good gold harp played

The notes caressed his cochlea

Tiny moon coins shined in his palms

The goose egg, one of his nest eggs

was cool to his lips' reverence

those lips with their little heart-shaped pucker

You became a local hero

One of the giant's boots

provided housing

for an alcoholic old woman

and her scads of no-good children

who throw whiskey bottles

out the eyelets like daisies

and the body of my big fellow

is good compost for the barley

which grows taller by July

high as the leaves

whispering the sky

Your only problem

is the stalks' lamenting song

when you walk past

a tune that creeps into you

I cannot comfort you

when you have such fits

I don't really like you

my bonny Jack