Context

It's very clear.
The context rises up out of this grouping of nouns
as I sort them for supermarket aisle geography.
These cookies may not be available
but texture is more important than brand name.
And these chocolates require, altogether,
a separate stop
which is a small price to pay.

Sometimes I wonder if this is,
exactly, what we owe each other -
Not just some idea of
what cannot be reasonably refused
in this or that moment,
as much as the promise of
any moment in relation
to the ones that precede,
the ones that follow.

Something so simple.
Things on a list to check off:
What do you need?

The correlation, the meaning,
between and amongst
people and experience,
understood, seen, and seen to
In whatever moment
we find ourselves in.

A carefully constructed
feedback loop
Of selfish kindness.

That future her, beneath me,
face flushed and eyes squeezed tight;
saying yes and please,
breathless and laughing.
The her who I will not see today.
Even when all the items here
Are precisely collected.

And I will collect them, precisely.
Even if out of sheer misanthropy
They've changed the packaging again.

Because she did not send a boy
To do a man's job.