Judy

I strode into the grocery Careful not to upset all the people in their fragile worlds An older man with silver sprouting from his head Turned to tell his friend That he was feeling abandoned by the ones he loved A woman picking fruit from a scale Scowled at a girl who would be her daughter Whose hands looked red and wet And who was scowling back I wandered purposefully to the freezer aisle Taking time to glance down each section Noting the things I ought to have gotten A wild girl marched past me Telling herself that she hated her job I noticed then that the was wearing a nametag Judy I thought to ask her much But as to what I could not think of Until she was far and away Probably mumbling nothings in the check-out station This and my purchase clouded the afternoon Long until I was at home and asleep But the grocery faded away from me The mother and the scales Forgotten I dreamt of wild Judy but she was gone Streaming out of my head at first light And I wondered if she'd forgotten me too