Bailey

A little girl bounding through

the woods of the southern countryside

runs home to her sweet guardians as

her girlish pigtails bounce with

pretty bows tied around the base. 

With her endless hunger leading her,

she bursts through the door, smelling 

her way to the warm kitchen where

fresh tortillas sit in a comal, puffing 

up into delicious masa balloons. 

The heat radiating off the deflating 

tortillas lures little Bailey closer 

to the reddish brown container, 

holding her delicious prize. A

treat for a well-behaved little girl. 

She looks to her mother as her 

brown eyes widen with a question 

and a slight demand. One might

even call her actions “begging”

seeing her drooling expression. 

Her mother sighs with a grin, 

and takes one of the coveted tortillas,

blowing on it gently to cool it down, 

and hands it to her precious daughter. 

How could they possibly say no?

Bailey lunges forward, grabbing her treat,

and scarfs it down rapidly, hardly tasting 

the delicious morsel, but enjoying every

fleeting moment until it is all gone. Then she cheerfully asks for another. 

Her father laughs with a belly full of food,

and offers Bailey another off their own plate. 

Thankfully there is an abundance to go around,

or else their little girl would start chewing on the 

furniture to showcase her eternal hunger. 

After eating her fill, the little girl trots off to her bed,

fluffy and soft, holding her full stomach and laying 

down for her afternoon nap. The sunlight shines through

the wooden shutters, warming her up like the aforementioned

tortillas, and guides her to a deep and peaceful sleep.

Her stomach stretches out like a carefree child’s, 

happy and generously filled to the brim with delectable

delicacies. Bailey’s dreams are also filled with the ever 

present food supplied by her guardians as her little legs

kick and twitch as she runs in her sleep towards the food. Buttered rolls, ripe mangoes, crunchy carrots,

and slices of cake spill out of the sky and into her 

wide open mouth, licking her chops repeatedly 

after each bite is swallowed nearly whole like a 

cartoon snake devouring its next meal. 

She belches out a blast of air in her dream, mirroring

her petite burp in the waking world, and startles

herself awake, finding her sleeping form had been 

lovingly nestled between her mother and father.

Her dress crinkled like her eyes as she smiled. 

Bailey nuzzles her face deep into her pillow,

eyes fluttering back down, as she drifts into a

brand new dream. This time filled with new 

foods and new forests to run in. Tomorrow 

would be a new day with a tasty new adventure.