nellie bridge

Sunny Farms

After the game, I shop at the store. 
At night, after everyone I know has died, 
I pull into the Sunny Farms Country Store parking lot 
and take a spot by the exit west on 101, 
in the spot-lit ad for Sir Tip Roast and Slicing Cukes 59 c ea. 
I shop. I shop at the store. 
I walk next to someone’s life 
like a shadow. I steer, 
power steering. I steer, 
manual, my half-dead muscles pulling awake. 
I steer my cart through the bulk aisle, the rice cake aisle, 
the delicacies in small jars aisle. 
For what reason do I come back here? 
If I exist, the reason or the lack of reason 
is the same. I am my own 
reason for being. Everything means.