midnight grocery shopping after watching days and days of viking week on the history channel
midnight grocery shopping after watching days and days of viking week on the history channel
Original Text
Dani Couture. Good Meat. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2006.
1grocery carts
2would not make good long boats:
3too many holes.
4a disabled freezer chest
5in aisle 5 provides
6a cold sea to wade through,
7and i do, with large, heavy steps.
8tonight i would be satisfied
9with another man’s woman
10thrown over my bulky shoulder.
11her name would be helga
12to my sven.
13barring a lack of women to abduct,
14even a large fish to char would be nice.
15instead, i am left with a tin can
16of tuna—dolphin-friendly at that.
17i throw the can
18into the cart with more muscle
19than needed.
20an elderly lady hovering
21beside the green beans
22clutches
23her pink sequined purse
24tight to her sagging chest.
25overripe tomatoes fall
26from her gnarled-root hands,
27explode, then bleed
28onto the cool green linoleum.
29i smell blood
30and like it.
RPO poem Editors
Jim Johnstone
RPO Edition
2013
Special Copyright
Poem used with permission of the author.