Andrew Fairchild | + Follow Poet |
Prose Poetry | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

We Used To Go To the Store Together

We used to go to the store together.
Picking out vegetables was her Glory,
‘Let’s get a nice, Vibrant one!
No, not that one, THIS one!’
She would say.
She aimed for the vegetables
When we arrived,
Like a kid aims for the cotton candy
At a carnival.
Vegetables!

And then, I would try to be efficient –
‘You get this, and I’ll get that,’ I would say
But, ‘No, I want to come with You,’ she would say.
‘Let’s go and look at the vegetables first,
You always like that.’
‘Okay!’ and then she would aim for the peaches,
Fresh and sweet and not on the list,
Just after she’d said, ‘okay, let’s stick to the list,
Mother Mary says to get everything on the list
And nothing else’
And, when I would ask her about it, she would say,
‘Mother Mary says it’s okay!’

So, our lists were never set in cement,
Unless I went in by myself,
And then she would say, when I got home,
Or out to the car, if she was waiting there,
Did you get me bananas?’
‘NO,’ I said, ‘they weren’t on the list’
And ‘oh,’ she said, crestfallen, ‘I asked Mother Mary
To TELL you to get them, and she said yes…’
So, I would rush back to the store, or rush back in,
If she was out waiting in the running car
With the window open, and the A/C on,
And GET THE BANANAS,
And she liked that.

So, we used to go to the store, and now,
I think I will take her along with me,
Now she is gone,
And get her advice – it is always good advice,
I am not especially good at picking the ‘right’ vegetables…

9/4/2017

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