Sometimes, you know, pushing that cart from aisle
To aisle, you spot a woman different
From the rest. You’re pierced, hopelessly beguiled.
Last year, I saw one near the condiments
Whose quiet eloquence—tall, shapely, fair—
Bespoke an earthbound goddess, lost, it seemed,
Among the cans. We passed; I didn’t stare.
Yet dazzled, helpless, I admit, I dreamed.
Waiting at the check-out line, without mirth,
She plucked a gaudy tabloid from the rack.
You know the kind: “Pigmy Hippo Gives Birth
To Dolphin Twins!” She didn’t put it back!
My clear-eyed, high-pitched wail shot through the art
That hid her, and shattered my crystal heart.
(12/31/06)