Little girl in the grocery store
Cuter than a peach
On a checkered cloth
In a basket,
Can't find her Mom.
Canned peas loom.
Aisles stretch into infinity.
Strangers bustle by, ten feet tall and steelier than automobiles.
This is when the heart constricts
The skin prickles, and
Tears flow.
Standing at the end of the row,
I can see that Mom is only
One aisle away
Pricing cake mix
For a treat later.
But to that little girl,
She may as well have been
Teleported to the Kamchatkan Peninsula,
Or launched on a space probe,
Shrinking tinier by the nanosecond,
Never to be heard from again.
To me, Mom looks kind,
Her hair is soft,
Her arms sweet solace,
And her voice something that I remember from happiness that I lost.
Love may be
One aisle over,
And love may lie
On a frozen moon of Jupiter...
This is when my heart constricts,
My skin prickles, and
Tears begin to flow.
I sink down on the dirty checkered floor
Of the Food Land store,
Throw my head back and howl,
And everyone,
Even the lost little girl,
Stop what they're doing
To stare.
_______
A thoughtful, compassionate poem.
ReplyDeleteSometimes we're lost little girls ourselves.
now that's empathy, heee heee heee. nice one!
ReplyDeleteI would too ...
ReplyDeleteExcellent.
ReplyDeleteWe all have our toddler moments.
Oh!
ReplyDeleteI love it! You captured the longing for lost comfort and a child's fears. And the song that's playing is really pretty too. (Ocarina).
ReplyDeleteAh, lovely and emotional, this one. Everyone's got lost at least once in their childhood, I guess. But, I could connect this one to the current complexities of life. You get lost looking for them or dodging them. Nicely written!!! Keep them coming!!!
ReplyDeleteThere are many different ways of being lost, and I relate to one way in particular. As a child I often woke up in the middle of the night and my parents weren't there. I'd scream and cry and watch the curtains blowing in my open bedroom window and no one ever came. I can relate to the petrified feeling of this lost little girl, and your reaction. Brilliant; you go girl.
ReplyDeleteMom looks kind
ReplyDeleteuntil she tears away from the cake mix
and sees no child.
Panic turns her
wild-eyed and harsh.
Fortunately, no one notices
due to the chick howling one aisle over.
That lost child feeling is really one that grips every mother.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's it.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, and I think we have all witnessed this one in person, I know i have:)
ReplyDeleteA woman fainted in the frozen food aisle once, heat-stroke I think.
ReplyDeleteIt think it was me.