The Next to the Last Poem in the Long-Running Series About the Fall of 2005

November 29, 2005
In the supermarket

there was a European girl
standing in front of the dairy case
taking photos of the Coffee-mate

And when you looked at it
yeah it was worth photographing
We’re talking almost as much shelf-space as is devoted to milk
Row upon row of red and brown and blue and green plastic bottles
Creepy when you think about it
though not without aesthetic possibilities
in the hands of a good photographer
And probably a lot creepier too
if you’re from elsewhere
overawed and vaguely horrified

Later I heard her talking to a store employee
about how many different kinds of Kellogg’s breakfast cereal there were

So I observed all this
but uppermost in my mind
was the fact that I had never seen the wall of Coffee-mate there before
though this has been my weekly grocery store for two years now
I didn’t even know you could buy non-dairy-creamer in the dairy case
Yet there it sits
right between the milk I buy
and the yogurt I buy

Much as I hate to beat the poor old dead horse
of this ever-recurring theme
of all the things I never saw though they were right in front of me
and then suddenly did see them
It’s hard to ignore that it’s now happening almost daily


image source is here