Shopping List by M.L. Fenton

M.L. Fenton is an aspiring poet and a full time bus driver. She is a life long resident of the Monongahela river valley of Pennsylvania. The collapse of the steel industry, subsequent deterioration of the of the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the rivers themselves serve as inspiration for her poetry.


Shopping list

She had beautiful penmanship (something
I’ve always lacked)

I thought as I looked at her

Shopping list:
Pudding
Hot dog relish
Bananas (two, ripped from the bunch)
Reader’s digest
Jumbo
Etc.

Me, hurried and slightly annoyed
after work.

Discarding the shopping list in the
buggy, continuing with the minutiae
of my, oh so important life.

later when she’s gone

I’m always looking for those
shopping lists with her lovely handwriting

when my hands touch the cold handle of any shopping cart.