Bringing Home The Shopping

I came home with the shopping.
I love it –
Looking through all the choices of things
And collecting what I need.
And I put the bags on my cane sofa
In the kitchen,
And forgot about them
While I involved myself
In other things.
Later, returning
To take all my carefully
Selected foods and goods
Out of the bags to store,
I opened the first bag
And was almost swept away –
Swept away by the wonder of it.
In that flimsy plastic bag,
With its imprint of the supermarket
Badly stamped upon it,
I saw all the treasure of care,
The fruits of labour
My mother and father
Had carried with love
Into our home,
Carried, just as I had carried
These bags today.
There in glory shone manifest
The skills I had struggled,
Or with joy learned and honed
In order to have something to give
To my fellows,
And therefore feed
My children and myself,
To take as an offering to my wife.
In my hands were the gifts
Of the generations,
The forefathers and mothers
Throughout the ages.
Such common things
All shone with light,
And with a mystery
Beyond my understanding –
And I stood transfixed.

Art By Julie Haile – Email

Copyright ©2003 Tony Crisp