Skin for all seasons

I ride my shopping cart like a parade float
at the supermarket circus
Where the ringmaster at the meat counter
shout tonight’s attraction with a flourish
and acrobat shelf-stackers prance from lane to lane, paper price stickers like streamers and confetti in the air
I am surrounded by LOUD, BUY ME, cacophony of color
Patterns and oversized portions of spectacular
I dance everywhere
I’ll buy everything
I’ll believe anything
But it falters at the finale
Tinny music overhead
Sterile lighting at the checkout
Plastic bars to separate my revelry from her newspaper, yogurt, and chewing gum.
Beep. Beep. Paper or plastic?

January 20, 2010