groceries

She tries to give me an unopened bag of cornmeal. "Do you want this?" She asks as sincerely as you may offer food to someone who looks hungry. Surely I don't look hungry, and I'm on my way to the grocery with a cupboard so bare I've run out of ranch dressing. *

"Yes." I take the bag and hug it.

"Do you want this?" She points at a glowing yellow bunch of bananas.

"Yes." Of course, I am going to take the bananas. They go well with the cornmeal, the tomato, the squash, the cucumbers, the offer of eggs. Would I like some zucchini?

I listen to Rakoff's love of New York, and it reminds me of the center here. That summer is watermelons, tomatoes, peaches, squash in every way possible, cucumbers, pickles, lemons in water, and lemons in pies.


I am grateful for generous people and gardens and in the most center of the universe way, home.



*Crisis now averted.