Round Is Not A Pregnant Shape, A Poem By Peter Menkin

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 my
store 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.

Photo by Henry Worthy, Camaldoli, Benedictine Oblate, London. "Contemplating His Creation."