To the Man I Passed On My Way to Trader Joe’s
A poem by Nina Avedon

To the Man I Passed On My Way to Trader Joe’s

No, it was not the artificial limb
attached to the runner’s build—
I hadn’t scanned that until after
a shadow white stache
waved from his leathery face
like a helmet free Harley biker.
No, he didn’t resemble grandpa
in that cool sepia photo
or remind me of the father
of my second best friend
that summer after sophomore
year but if he had been there when
I wheeled my perishables home,
wouldn’t that have been a sign?

About the Author:

Nina Avedon is a psychoanalyst and a poet who lives and works in Brookline, MA though she dreams she still resides in the New York City of her childhood. She has been aware over the years of how word choice, metaphor, associations and the creative wellspring of the unconscious feature in both endeavors.  Her poems have appeared in Oberon Poetry Magazine, Avalon Literary Review, Leon Literary Review and in the poetry and medicine section of JAMA.

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