Friday 15 May 2020


FOOD SHOPPING IN THE TIME OF CORONA

by Mary K O'Melveny


It turns out that canned sliced
pears are not popular.
They sit, almost alone,
on our grocery shelves.
Police tape blocks the aisles
where paper goods and cleaning
products were once aligned.
Rice in every form
now as valuable as
bank notes. More so perhaps.

Remaining cereals
evidence an uptick
in healthy choices
where a few random boxes
of sugared, rainbow hued
circles sit, lonely as
parted lovers outside
a balcony. Liver
has survived a run on
plastic wrapped proteins.

Tilapia remains
displayed on ice, its gloss
turning toward slime. No
more salmon or codfish.
We are all angling for
new schools of thought about
survival, wishing we
had root cellars and cans
of last summer’s beans, corn.
All the flour has vanished.

Will we have time enough
to sort through our affairs
before this outbreak ends?
Each display case poses
questions we do not wish
to answer. As we pass,
shoppers move their carts
away. Some wear masks, gloves.
I push on to the fruit
section. There are mangoes!


* * * * *

Mary K O’Melveny, a retired labor rights lawyer, lives with her wife in Washington DC and Woodstock, NY. Mary, a Pushcart Prize nominee, is author of A Woman of a Certain Age and MERGING STAR HYPOTHESES (Finishing Line Press 2018, 2020) and co-author of the anthology An Apple In Her Hand (Codhill Press 2019). 

3 comments:

  1. I believe the visual of sad Fruit Loops lingering on separate balconies will linger in my imagination...perhaps forever.

    ReplyDelete
  2. a few random boxes
    of sugared, rainbow hued
    circles sit, lonely as
    parted lovers outside
    a balcony.

    Love that!

    ReplyDelete