Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Poem by Eric Ashford
I Found Myself in Walmart
Spiritually speaking
I was on a candy high.
Perhaps that is why
I found myself foraging
basket in hand
(while most others pushed
oversized carts
toward a supersized Nirvana)
among the cocoa harvests
of foreign lands.
You followed me reluctantly.
You love Wal-Mart
but you were puzzled.
"Eric" you said patiently
"what do you need?"
As you spoke
a shaft of light crashed
like a Chinese paratrooper
through the store's skylight.
It bounced off high stacked shelves.
It barged its way between
overweight shoppers
illuminating spandex mysteries.
It flashed upon my eyes
and I knew.
I knew that while our bodies
did not so often
pound love into speaking flames-
that I still wanted you,
only you,
just you,
not even candy.
Not cut-price plastic hole fillers,
not anything blue, green or yellow
seen on a T.V. in aisle 3
nor did I need more coffee
or anything.
How even here
in this warehouse of hope and light
we could find each other
like Adam discovering Eve
and Eve peeking at Adam
in their Garden of Eden
for the first time.
And how like Adam
I had found God.
Eric Ashford
(Many poems on this site deal with the lover within. Eric's poem is about the lover without. Both are of central importance in human experience.)
