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Saturday, February 13, 2010


For about 8 years I worked off and on at the department store Sears on a part time basis.It was mainly on. A few poems about observations while on duty as a sales clerk were written. Herewith, a poem from 2002 on what I saw at Sears. There were only a few of these poems, originally posted on the Atlantic Monthly Writer's Workshop (now defunct). I am sorry I did not write more of them, as 7 years later I like this one and another.
One can't call two or three poems a series, and because I keep poems I've written on my computer, I will search to see if there are more. Some people think it unfair to be revising or looking at poems 7 or 8 years old. One poet remarked to me that this wasn't so unusual, to keep an image or a sense of a poem in ones mind for years.
My way is to return to work written sometimes as long ago as 8 years or even nine, and revise. I find at times that I begin to like the poem, where before I did not like it so much or found it lacking. I do hope you like this one as it is an amusement. So as I say, herewith the poem:

Round is not a Pregnant Shape
by Peter Menkin

Three pregnant women

last night at the store.

Each carried her self,

proving round is not

a pregnant shape.

I watch the pregnant women

as they shop, and walk,

move about with children

or alone.

This is part of mystore duties, I tell myself:

Pregnant woman watching.

There are ovals, and mountains,

abundance, and full.

There are heavier, and moving,

ripe and blooming.

Some are a little bit more.

Amid this there is something

new, alive, awakening to two

and wonderment moving towards

birth.

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