I am shopping for Thursday dinner, alone
down the Mexican aisles.  Here
there are flash-frozen tilapia, gutted
half chickens in pyramid piles, eggs
with the skid marks of laying,
no cranberries for saucing but I am happy
for what I can’t find, ripe for them
to hold me like a softening avocado.

They are a Tuesday away from me,
packing Nick’s toys, bundling Riggs’
and Riley’s Battleship and Pokeman games,
soon to drive down from Santa Barbara.  Hours
remain, yet I hear the key turn, the Odyssey’s purr,
the blanket of night warming their journey
like a cocoon they will burst from, 
my bright children, tumbling forth
to find Baja’s bougainvillea and me.

This aisle holds tins of alote, another
bins of mangoes, limones, piña, naranja,
and as they lower a window the scents
of Baja will enter.  There is a sea breeze
on the Interstate, sailing them south
where they will taste me, know
the great pod at my green center,
the split and the shoot, the fruit
of me with me again – and we will feast.

~


 
[after Night Flight by George Bilgere from Ted Kooser’s ALP, Nov. 23, 2009 – last edit Nov. 24, 2009]

Lynn, this is quite wonderous and rich. The dovetailing of these images / worlds is sharp and opens the senses. I stumble a bit at: ...I am happy / for what I can't find,... It allows the imagination to gather up those images of American excesses, but they seem to distract from the intent of the poem?

larry

Lynn, I love "eggs/with the skid marks of laying"--perfectly horrid! I get slightly tangled in sentence grammar at top of S2 (sorry, all those years of diagramming sentences for nuns):
They are:
(1) a Tuesday away
"and"
(2) packing toys, driving.
It seems this should be a list of 3 items, or I stop to think are they packing toys while they're driving, and get distracted for a second trying to envision that.
Or you could just say, Who the hell's writing for nuns and their ilk??
Good reading this, really put me in touch with your heart down there, wish you love over Thanksgiving. Tom

So did you end up getting a Chinese take-away?

:)

Larry -- "I stumble a bit at: ...I am happy / for what I can't find,... It allows the imagination to gather up those images of American excesses, but they seem to distract from the intent of the poem?"  I see what you mean.  I guess it's one thing to know what I mean and another to translate the same . . .  I'll try to clarify.

Tom -- "I get slightly tangled in sentence grammar at top of S2 (sorry, all those years of diagramming sentences for nuns):  They are:  (1) a Tuesday away "and" 2) packing toys, driving.  It seems this should be a list of 3 items, or I stop to think are they packing toys while they're driving, and get distracted for a second trying to envision that."  Also see what you mean and will try to make some adjustments.  

Peter!  What my kids have requested is lobster at Puerto Nuevo in one of the fish joints overlooking the ocean -- makes it easy on the mama as I aim to please!  Thanks for the look!

Appreciate you guys!  Thanks for the comments -- much appreciated.  lynn

Posting for comps to edits. 

Hey Lynn,

Of course, I think every word is splendid and every image vivid in its detail.  There is no disputing the strength of the first verse, structurally unique (the absent commas that force the line breaks) and sensually evocative, right down to the chickens and dirty eggs.

I got distracted in the second verse, on my second read, and realized that I'd been taken out of this previous place and suddenly foundering around somewhere else.  I've tried to supplant the narrator's internal thoughts as the 'place', but the 'Odyssey' and 'Pokemon' and 'Battleship' all seem to thrust me into another space.

The third verse brings the reader back to this other 'place'.  This solitary moment that is less about loneliness and more about the narrator's own discoveries of self.  We're returned to foods and smells and wondrous places. 

Perhaps I need to read it again when I've had more sleep. 

Timoteo

wow, Lynn
superb writing

Stella

Ditto Stella.  Moving this one up.

Rick

Tim -- thanks for thoughts on this one.  I'd hoped the title would sort of go both ways to inform the reader from both sides of the travel.  Always appreciate your careful thoughts and the time you spend offering them.

Stella -- Thank you.  means a lot!

Rick!  A surprise to find this one moved and thanks for the ditto and the boost!

lynn