I have never felt so comforted
as I have at the grocery store.
I have been soothed by creme-filled cakes,
by the gaze of gherkins in their jars.
Bad feelings — I have left out in the car
to overheat and die
in the gorgeous
July weather;
among weatherless aisles
I wander in serenity and ease.
For I have seen plenty everywhere
I could not see evidence of evil:
in the relaxing sound of the ground lamb
in its bed of cold plastic,
in these perfect mounds
of Red Delicious apples.
They are not delicious.
They are really, really, really, really red.
Katherine Meehan lives in Reading. Her work has appeared at the Kenyon Review, One Hand Clapping, Lunate, Drunken Boat, Brittle Star, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Wilderness House Literary Review, and others. She holds a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford, and she is working towards her first collection.