Here’s another poem written in response to John Osborne’s supermarket poetry exercise. It’s great to see the variety of responses to this exercise and all the places that poems end up from the seemingly mundane starting point of the supermarket.
Service Announcement
Could Jane take a pan and brush
and bucket and cloth
to aisle two please. A jar of strawberry
jam has been dropped. I thought
you would be best as I know you have
a youngster prone to vomiting so
are good at cleaning up.
Your little one is three now, isn’t that
right? Four-&-a-half years on
from when we were an item, tho’ I had
quickly realised we wouldn’t be right
for each other
really.
But I was surprised when James moved
in
so soon after and more so
when I found out you were to have
a baby together straight away;
it was one of the things we crossed
words about.
Could someone please go to aisle 4
before I give up the mic – and stop me
from buying any more
if I try to.
Roger Hare
Poetry Non-Stop 