bodega
I want to slip out of the rain
into a bodega in Sunset Park
where the Iraqi owner
calls me “buddy†or some-
times “sir†which sounds
OK when he says it
I want to buy two Mexican
Cokes in chilled glass bottles
a package of OREO cookies
a box of kitchen matches
cheap headphones
and a tall slim candle
showing the Virgen de Guadalupe
I want to wait while
the old woman counts coins
from her tattered change purse
and the young kid who
works nights sells lottery tickets
to two busboys who stopped in
on the their way home
I want to get a craving for a snack
at three o’clock in the morning
and know that the place
will be just as busy as at
three o’clock in the afternoon
I want to choose my drink slowly
from the cooler in the back of the store
so I can watch two old men and two
younger men play dominoes and
tell jokes in a language I can’t identify
I want to buy mint chocolate chip
ice cream for the woman
who’s waiting for me
in the bed we share
just down the street
from the bodega
22 March 2013
Auburn AL
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