Ode to Piggly Wiggly
Perhaps you have heard the news?
Piggly Wiggly has been bought out.
It’s like someone has come in and hacked away part of my childhood.
I can’t imagine a world in which the Piggly Wigglys of the world disappear.
Vestiges of my growed up years markings on a dry erase board, wiped clean.
Piggly Wiggly will be replaced by snooty old Harris Teeter.
Soon all the Hominy will soon be replaced by Hummus.
Scuppernogs will go the way of maqui berry.
Where, oh, where will we go to get our pickled pig lips, now?
Ode to Piggly Wiggly
Mama handed me a $20 bill
Told me I was big enough
To do the grocery shopping
Now.
Sent me inside the Piggly Wiggly
To buy five days worth of meals
For Brother John,
Sister Tater,
Mama & me.
I bought cereal – Honey Oats.
Fish Sticks came twenty to a pack,
said the kind lady who helped me
Figure five sticks each would serve us well,
Plenty enough.
I was nearing tears by the time I picked up
Two boxes of Mac-and-Cheese
A can of Pet Evaporated Milk.
Whatever else I purchased that day
I can’t recall.
Only this, I left Piggly Wiggly knowing,
Even way back then, $20 wasn’t
Enough for four people and five days.
Feeling not nearly as mature,
as Mama expected of her oldest girl.
Age 12.
Karen Spears Zacharias is author of Mother of Rain, a World War II novel of mystery, madness, mountains & Melungeons.
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