On the theme of Groceries
I Have Coupons
after Paul Ĕluard’s essay, “Poetry’s Evidence”
I am just one of a hundred industrious suns, a burning
fluorescent mess, sinking down aisle twelve, next
to these bulb-changing babies pushing steel
wheezing wheels fast down invisible rails. Mom’s
in the basket with her Triscuits and a task; it’s
that imagination lacks, in or out of the cold
frozen groves of giant green peas. Please!
Rimbaud’s returned to nothingness and dairy,
where his milky cigarettes warn of the thin
jokes that humorless vegetables produce:
Please lettuce alone, I don’t carrot all. No,
never mind what I need. I’d rather buy what is
unfathomable, what is true. I have
coupons, and a long list. Still,
it’s hard to steer a star’s blaze-crazed goods
so far in such a wobbly cart. There’s:
unwanted fame (on the high shelf, hard
to reach without really trying);
there are the various advantages
given to obedience and weakness
(good for you, they say,
but I’ve never liked the taste);
overthrown reality (my impulse
buy); muddy laughter and dead man’s chatter
(for the kids); And last, other kinds of twilight,
which the stock boy says he’ll fetch
from the case at the end. On special
this week, two for one. With coupon.
Author Biography
Julia Gordon-Bramer is an award winning poet and writer of prose from St. Louis, Missouri.
More information about Julia: http://www.stlouispoetrycenter.org/bios/julia_gordon-bramer/