eggs, flour, light-bulbs

what Karl anticipated
as he left the house
through the back door
for the sake of the child
was a routine shopping trip
as
irregular
as
all
routine
shopping
had been
for the past
four years

wallet and keys
into the car
driver’s choice on the stereo

a moment to breath
in the satisfaction
of this indulgence

then over the bridge

through the first roundabout
over the hill
people-watching at the lights

through the tiny wasteland
beady-eyes behind net curtains

right at the roundabout
into a straight-forward
quite-distant parking-space
in the-shade

into the store
fifteen items quickly
checked off a list

a precisely rewritten alphabetised list
that really deserved a better
taxonomic principle

and then
the whole thing played in reverse

such anticipation was wasted in
Karl’s life
now bearing hypotheses of
ever-decreasing accurary
for some time

and then for the past few weeks
everything was suddenly unexpected

like the backpacking couple
eating muesli bars
on his back porch
right now

//ends