“The Supermarket,” by Shannon Winston (Poetry ’18)

2018 poetry alum Shannon Winston was recently featured in On the Seawall. Read an excerpt of “The Supermarket” below:

The Supermarket

When I read the cashier’s name tag — Penelope —
I think: she must be so lonely. She scans my almond butter,
and I imagine her response: I’m not your cliché.

Avocados wobble like Russian nesting
dolls across the conveyer belt,
along with chia seeds and refried beans.

When she grabs my oranges in their green plastic
netting with her knotted hands, does she think of weaving?
Some stitches let the light through,

others are wound so tightly they cut
her circulation off where she’s bitten her nails
down to the cuticle. There’s something about the slow sweep

of her arm: how easily she brushes away time,
and grief, slowly, deliberately, as if she has nowhere to be…

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://www.ronslate.com/the-supermarket/