by Peter Neil Carroll
Outside the little grocery, a woman
in a black cloth coat and feather hat
waits quietly near the electric door.
A shopper, stocked with pie crust,
biscuit mix, garlic flavored Velveeta
for the grits, pushes her cart
with one hand, the other fingers
a folded $5-dollar bill, looking
to give it away for Thanksgiving.
Neither says a word.
Peter Neil Carroll's seventh collection of poetry, Talking to Strangers, will be published in 2022. He lives in northern California.