You Could Live at Meijer
Pick a good shopping cart, with wheels
that don’t stick, gather fruit and cheese
The international shelf chides you—glass noodles?
Cous-cous? Souvlaki? Why haven’t you
visited Spain? You recognize the woman with the limp
No doubt she wore a special shoe as a girl.
Her hair is going gray at Meijer. Summer
is gone, the carts are dusted with snow. At night
they turn up the radio. Walk past pork rinds, ice cream, replace
the regular salad dressing in your cart with lowfat,
and notice your own husband is gone. You last
saw him with the coffee and tea—you reminded him how caffeine
affects his heart. You could die in Meijer.
They would put all your groceries back on the shelf.
Bonnie Jo Campbell is a resident of Portage, Michigan, and was a National Book Award Finalist in 2009 for her book “American Salvage”. Her newest novel “Once Upon a River” is due out July 4. She is a graduate of University of Chicago and Western Michigan University and raises donkeys. (Click here for more.)
Some really subtle moments in that poem…very cool!