Poetry and Groceries

Poetry and Groceries



The difference between my life now and two years ago
Is what makes Portland my home,
In the WholeOatsWildSeasonsNewFoods grocery store is a magazine rack,
Beyond health and current affairs, sidestepping Gourmet, Outside, and Harpers
My eyes rest on Poetry Northwest,
Two chairs invite like campfire stumps,
I read poetry
before buying toilet paper,
admire similes before spinach,

Yesterday, while camped, a poet takes me to Market Street at dusk, riding the streetcar into the amber breast of darkness looking for a lover in red shoes. I rise to pick up milk and eggs.

The boundaries of age and wisdom make me an observer now,
Each day youth depreciates like an oak desk,
An atrophied bank account,
A fine wine, turning,

In the aisles I’m finding unbridled joy in bread sampled, the palate of apples,
a butcher’s banter,
I read and re-read the poems; the universe provides sudden escapes,
Hours later, I see myself at 30 in the eyes of a coffeehouse model;
Brushing crumbs off her Levied thighs, talking to her computer screen, unaware that it’s her black cowboy boots that do the most for me.

C2008 Bruce L. Greene