Rachel Marie Patterson

Market

The grocery store entrance is fussy
with apples and chrysanthemums.
In the spice aisle, my daughter clowns
for shoppers who coo and grin.
As soon as they’re out of sight,
she holds her breath because
I will not let her twist open the cloves.
Elsewhere, as always, I am conjuring
the days when I shopped alone—
had time to hesitate, weigh the bananas.
Still drifting in the check-out lane
as my daughter shrieks, stretches
for packs of gum. Until the man
in line behind us is standing too close.
Teacher who ran his fat finger across
my jaw. Neighbor on the news who lured
a toddler to his garage. I leave a 12-pack
of soda-pop on the conveyor belt,
wheel past the teenage clerk.
Brain now broken, heaving toward
the exit. Snug in her carseat,
my daughter knows only the thrill
of car rides and strangers.

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Rachel Marie Patterson is the co-founder and editor of Radar Poetry. She holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro. Her poems appear in Cimarron Review, Harpur Palate, New Plains Review, Forklift, Ohio, The Journal, Thrush, Parcel, Smartish Pace and other journals. The winner of an Academy of American Poets Prize, her work has also been nominated for Best New Poets and Best of the Net. Her poem “Connemara” was a Special Mention for the Pushcart Prize in 2019. Her full-length collection, Tall Grass With Violence (FutureCycle), debuted in March 2022. www.rachelmariepatterson.com