An Old Woman, Smoking

In the Piggly Wiggly, in Bunkie, Louisiana,
In early July--
An old woman sat in a special wheelchair
Equipped with a large basket.

She was crooked, ugly, and old,
She wheezed and coughed and sputtered, and
In her good hand
Held a lighted cigarette butt.

Strong-headed old woman-witch,
You are an expensive cigarette holder,
So complex your circuitry, braided
As it is upon your skinny and ugly spine
And your smoked-out brain
And your twisted hands.

You do not need to unbend your crooked neck
To speak: I already know--

Your children hate you, and you them--
An abiding and hot quarrel underlies it all--
Fault and sin are approximately equally distributed.
The children have put you in a home,

Ungrateful little failures.

And you, you narrow and vicious woman,
You have relished each violent and hurtful encounter,
Treating each as a draught from a secret store
Of forbidden liquor.

Today is shopping day, and
Piggly Wiggly took you from the van, and,
Exercising the ultimate in corporate care,
Eased you into the special wheelchair/basket.

Consume, old witch. Grab from the lower shelves
Those things which you should not have:
Fudge, cane syrup, newtons, and jellies rich.

When you get back to your hole-in-the-wall,
You will gorge yourself with all that brings
Uhealth.

The world is a bitter place, and
You, alas, are its fruit.

---James Bolner, Sr.
Spring, 2000