Grim white string hangs a wheel Rawdon;<\/p>\n
hangs it dead. I push empty basket<\/p>\n
clanking drunk past pop-tarts<\/p>\n
and puffed-rice, by fruit loops<\/p>\n
and shredded wheat – weaving,<\/p>\n
nearly topple a stacked display<\/p>\n
of men all smiling eat my oats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In aisle six a young fat woman<\/p>\n
in yellow stretch pants –<\/p>\n
obviously braless –<\/p>\n
and white tee-shirt smiles<\/p>\n
marshmallows at me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In aisle seven a withered,<\/p>\n
man in black trousers and<\/p>\n
Wrinkled black shirt glances nervously<\/p>\n
Up from the contents of cat food<\/p>\n
and smiles toothless and bewildered.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My basket wobbles as I walk;<\/p>\n
somewhere, a loaf of bread? – a peach?<\/p>\n
Here, only brooms, and plastic pails, –<\/p>\n
tidy bowl and Sani-flush.<\/p>\n
At the far end of the aisle a pretty, young nun holding spic and span<\/p>\n
smiles hell at me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the produce section I am stopped<\/p>\n
bagging peaches. A big man in a white suit smiles.\u00a0 “Young man, where is the meat? – Fuck bread and fruit! I feel<\/p>\n
Carnivorous: ready to eat something bloody and mean, to gnaw, break bone<\/p>\n
of lamb, or fowl, or slaughtered steer.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I answer pointing, “Over there\u2026<\/p>\n
See the plump little girl poking<\/p>\n
her plump fingers into rump-roasts?”<\/p>\n
He eyes her deliciously and winks;<\/p>\n
yells, “What’s for dinner, baby?!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Outside, I squint and grin,<\/p>\n
peach juice trickles down my chin,<\/p>\n
the sun is hot, and sparrows pick<\/p>\n
at break crumbs on the street.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I roll away in my basket on three wheels downhill laughing.<\/p>\n
– 1980 Denver<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Note: While at Denver University from 1978 to 1981, one of my favorite classes was a Creative Writing\u2014Poetry class conducted by Rawdon Tomlinson, at the time, a little known, though published poet. This odd little piece was the result of an assignment to write a list-type poem about an actual experience in a public place.\u00a0 – clj<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grim white string hangs a wheel Rawdon; hangs it dead. I push empty basket clanking drunk past pop-tarts and puffed-rice, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":576,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-960","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2R4NI-fu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2967,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/960\/revisions\/2967"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodsoul.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}