Flowers and Baguettes
Her shopping trolley thought she had the kind of life
where flowers and baguettes would feature regularly.
She was just shopping for detergent and descaler.
She wanted to live up to this imagined life,
even sometimes bought such flowers, such baguettes,
They wilted early
or went stale
Such things were meant to be shared.
To fool her loyalty card she also bought wildly inappropriate things:
baby wipes, dog biscuits, meals for two.
She hungered for a more complex and chaotic life.
Flowers and baguettes didn’t work with this life either.
But after all, this was on different days
For different audiences.
Heidi Slettedahl is a mostly unpublished poet who would like to give up to her potential now that she is over 50. In real life she is an academic who goes by a slightly different name.