Stores

Fifteen I got a job at Leggett's, stock

boy, fifty cents an hour. Moved up—I come

from that kind of people—to toys at Christmas,

then Menswear and finally Shoes.

Quit to go

to college, never worked retail again, but

I still really like stores, savor merchandise

neatly stacked on tables, sweaters wanting

my gliding palm as I walk by, mannequins

weirdly sexy behind big glass windows,

shoes shiny and just waiting for the right feet.

So why in my seventies do Target, Lowes,

and Home Depot spin me dizzy and lost,

wanting my mother to find me, wipe my eyes,

hold my hand all the way out to the car?

Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2015 by Louisiana State University Press, “Stores,” from Dream Sender, (Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of David Huddle and the publisher.