Corner Grocery

The woman standing between the waterfall

and the mountain wall remembers 

her first disappearing act, the one she performed 

soon after she was allowed to run errands alone. 

The butcher in the bloody apron 

maybe asked a simple question, maybe

What does the little girl want?

or maybe he said nothing at all, just held her 

gaze for a moment too long, then a moment 

longer. Maybe she backed away without giving 

him her mother’s list, knowing full well

the meaning of the word carnivore and that 

it would be a long time before she would ever 

eat meat for dinner again. Or maybe she just remembers

running home and hiding under her mother’s skirt, 

between the waterfall and the mountain wall.

[LSS, 9/6/20]