One

When my mother got the DT

For the first time

I drove the car after staying up with her

All night

To the new Safeway

She went in

And left me outside

She didn’t want me with her

Because she was shaking

And she hates to seem weak

Ever

So she leaned on the cart

And told me to wait outside

As the sun rose

The muzak played “One”

By U2

And I cried

Either out of relief

That she had appeared to weather

The worst

Or perhaps

In pity for myself

Or, like a mixed drink

The worst of both

And when I got a job at that store

About a year later

I couldn’t fetch the carts

Without thinking of that time

It became a focal point in novels

A central thematic

The place of placid misery

This setting of the crux of my formation

And you know what the best part is?

It’s just a fucking grocery store

They sell onions and pizzas and flowers

For husbands in trouble

If there be something epic in only this

Perhaps there is some hope for the poem