Richard Schnap- A Poem

CHECK OUT LINE

I stood behind a half-dozen shoppers
Each with their baskets of packages and cans

Watching them survey the sundry goods
Placed to entice them for one final buy

A young girl glanced at a men’s periodical
As if tempted to uncover what turns them on

While an overweight woman studied the candy
As if wondering which one wouldn’t add to her guilt

An elderly man eyed a magazine for women
As if curious if it told them the older the better

While a teenage boy took stock of the lighters
As if choosing which one would light his first smoke

And as I imagined their secret desires
I thought about how the items we long for

Are the items that make up the creatures we are
Even if we don’t know what they are ourselves