'At the Grocery Store' by Donal Mahoney

At the Grocery Store
 
We’re troubled by the very rich
we see only on TV and worry
about the poor who sleep at night
 
in doorways and in parks, the truly poor
with little more than the clothes they wear
and things they carry around in blue
 
Walmart shopping sacks, stuff that proves
who they are and hope to be again.
But we seldom see the retired poor
 
unless we shop at dawn in an 
all-night grocery store and watch  
them slowly navigate the aisles.
 
They see a banquet on the shelves,
food they cannot buy, and put little cans 
in carts after checking every price
 
and hoping they will find something 
at a price they can now afford,
something they loved eating years ago.
 
 
Donal Mahoney