Supermarket Pastoral
--Samn Stockwell

I saw a ground squirrel with a long naked tail
in the wilderness behind the Stop & Shop
where the brook rushes into the vortex of an abandoned dryer.

I, too, have a wasting disease
and at my core, a sinking, but I am not done

continuing, watching the old Quakers pushing their peace signs
in front of the supermarket, pushing eighty
and seeing everything in its terrible proportion.


[via poetry daily]