AN ODD SHOPPING LIST

A large box of Saltine crackers,

two cans of Campbell’s Soup,

red & white label, chicken noodle,

a package of Lipton tea bags and

assorted colors and flavors of Jell-O.

Half gallon of Tropicana orange juice,

a six pack of Canada Dry Ginger Ale

piled in a blue plastic shopping basket.

If I saw all these on the conveyor belt

gliding along, on the way to the cashier

it would only mean one thing for me.

Somebody must be sick in that house.

Maybe I’m strange, maybe everyone

else has different ideas about what you

need to help you get better, or what

you should buy when loved ones are ill.

PREMONITION

He’s at the mall with the other teenagers.

She’s at her monthly meeting for school.

Tonight I’ll take myself out to dinner to a

place I go when I’m alone, because it’s ok

to be alone there. The pizza guys make me

feel at home when I approach the counter.

I tell them, I’m going to stay here tonight.

Assorted red and green neon signs shine

above my cheese steak with fried onions

as I tap the bottom of a bottle of ketchup.

It occurs to me that in a few years, this may

be me more often. Sitting at a table for four

by a window watching families come and

go on a Friday night, laughing together as

they rush out the door with pies in hand.

RED WINE AND CACHO

Under sprawling branches of their sycamore with its

peeling bark, a dozen birdhouses hung like ornaments,

but served a purpose, shelters for those little tiny finches.

We drank the red wine, rolled the dice, spoke of the future,

planned to travel to places that made him the strongest.

Looking back on that day, I’d have to say it was just right.

The right amount of sunshine, laughter, warm breezes, mixed

with the cup’s rattle and slam on the table with its woven cloth

of green, red and blue threads. A second bottle was opened from

“the cellars of the devil”, and with charango music on a boom box,

he stopped to say once more-These Chileans seem to have the idea,

but I still can’t forgive them for taking away our pathway to the sea.