Mater Dolorosa
Sometimes I get sad in the grocery store
Tears well up in the produce section while
I’m picking over avocados or broccoli.
As if the original sadness of exiled
Eve reaches out to touch me unexpectedly.
It’s probably hormones — or maybe
depression or perhaps just a deep
memory unconsciously triggered
by a half-heard song on the store’s radio.
Whatever it is, it’s sudden as a summer
shower descending from the blue
and leaving everything damp in its wake.
This is really excellent, Melanie. The juxtaposition of the biblical garden of eden vs the banality of the grocery store. The exile from the garden vs the modern day depression of a mother. It is shocking yet very simply stated. I think this could be published in a literary magazine.
Thank you. I was really pleased with the way the imagery came together. I wrote it in my head on the way home from the store and when we pulled into the driveway I told Bella not to say a word while I got out my notebook and scribbled it down. I was afraid to lose it.