pensioner goes shopping - Mary Trafford

hollow cheeks

faded blue eyes

baseball cap

battered as he

two six packs

Wild Cat beer,

yellow box detergent

white plastic bag

groceries bulge

wobbly-wheel cart

‘86 Dodge Ram

navy, rust, primer paint

drives away:

exhaust

disappears

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Mary Trafford is very glad to be a retired speech writer and medical illustrator, but continues her sideline passions of writing, editing, drawing, and teaching Centered Riding®. She is editor of “Centered Riding News,” a volunteer role she loves. Mary’s preferred genre of writing is poetry. Her poems have appeared in several publications, including Contemporary Verse 2, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canadian Woman Studies, Gone Dogs, Up the Gatineau and a 2020 anthology from Truth Serum Press. In 2020, Mary won second place in the Vallum Magazine Award for Poetry; in 2002, she won the inaugural Diana Brebner Prize from Arc Poetry Magazine. Mary lives in Chelsea, Quebec, Canada, with her wife and their bossy cat who gets up too early every single day.