"New" Grocery Disaster by Amanda Deutch

This one is new to Rewords, but was actually written three years ago.

Grocery Disaster

Her red dress
that she wore
she wore till it was
always.

monday tuesday wednesday
thursday everyday

a red dress just the same

torn and feathered

thread bare
and grocery

disasters
in the streets

over the years
from push cart fruit vendors
to bodegas and corner markets
then finally supermarkets

a whole complete navel
orange a squished grape
a spilt cart of apples

roll on the sidewalk under the tree

fire hydrants bow when her red dress
wears by

statch and stret stet and strut
starch and hem

lovely in the filth of morning light

the quake of rotten dreams
itching

bugs insect the hair

patience must

she wears

the same the same the same red

as it shifts and hollers

through an assortment of brand names
and cities

windows scratching to see into
her hollers

holes

birds a spec pigeons
grimy shoot out from her foot steps
into off-grey polluted light

4/19/ 2005