Paper? Plastic? ...Poetry

c2010
B.L. Greene


Poetry and Groceries
I.
My grocery store offers more than food,
Fiery temptations to taste aged cheese, compare olive oils, or sip free trade grinds,
So I take time,
deter impulse,
advance ideas,

In the WholeOatsWildSeasonsNewFoods grocery store hides a magazine rack,
Beyond health and current affairs, sidestepping Gourmet, Outside, and Harpers
My eyes rest on Poetry Northwest,
Two chairs, like campfire stumps, invite.
I read poetry
before
buying toilet paper,
admire similes
before spinach.
II.
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 must not forget to pick up milk.


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.

But in the market aisles, I’m finding unbridled joy in bread sampled,
the palate of apples,
a butcher’s banter,

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,
Must I avert my eyes?

It’s her black cowboy boots I want most.