• 0 items$0.00

Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

  • Home
  • Authors
  • Books
  • Events
  • ASP Bulletin
  • Submissions
  • Reviews/Press
    • Legacy Series
  • Staff
  • FB
  • Twitter
  • IG
Home / Bulletin Poetry / Speaking with Strangers While Shopping

Feb 25 2021

Speaking with Strangers While Shopping

By Fran Abrams

Written Sept, 2020

calle-macarone-Vl78eNdiJaQ-unsplash

They still don’t have paper towels here.

Even Costco was rationing them, two to a customer.

 

I just want my assorted olives, healthy you know.

I haven’t been able to find half the things on my list.

 

There’re fires on the west coast. I expect I won’t find

the greens I usually buy.

 

Wonder how long we’ll get oranges from Florida.

The floods from the hurricanes have been horrible.

 

The best time to go shopping is in the morning

when you can still get ahead of the crowds.

 

Have you looked at the masks some people are wearing?

My favorites are the ones with kittens and puppies.

 

I get so upset with people pushing ahead of me.

I’m sure I need eggs as much as they do.

 

Does it feel like a third world country to you?

I mean -- walking into the store 

and finding the shelves half empty?

Fran Abrams has had poems published in print and online, including Work Literary Magazine.  Her poems appear in six published and forthcoming anthologies, including “This is What America Looks Like” from Washington Writers Publishing House. She was a juried poet at Houston Poetry Fest in October 2019 and a featured reader at DiVerse Gaithersburg (MD) Poetry Reading Series in December 2019. Her website is franabramspoetry.com

Written by Alan Squire Publishing · Categorized: Bulletin Poetry

© Copyright 2023 Alan Squire Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Website by Sara Chandlee. Graphic design by Dewitt Designs