Through the supermarket aisles I push a cart
as if I were the mother of two heads of cauliflower,
and navigate according to the verse-list
I improvised this morning over coffee.
Sale banners wave to shoppers
studying the labels on packaged foods
as Muzak entertains the frozen birds. And I too,
whose life is made of life, stride down the dog-food aisle
toward Mr. Flinker who confides in my ear that only the body
crumbles but the spirit remains young forever, believe me.
I believe, but now let me turn to Granny Smith and McIntosh.
Hurry hurry, folks, to the coriander,
hurry hurry, folks, I’m the supermarket bard,
I’ll sing the rustle of cornflakes,
the curve of mutinous cucumbers,
until the cash register will hand me
the final printed version
of my poem.
~ from The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry
(Ecco, HarperCollins, 2010)
