every soccer mom enters the grocery store

[betteroffbad]

every soccer mom enters the grocery store
all of them all at the same time
it's not even that big of a grocery store
their elbows and their hairdos all rhyme
what makes a mom a soccer mom
is it being a mom who likes soccer
or is there some soccerly ticking time bomb
in the heart of each mom like a locker
every soccer mom ever to tie on a cleat
or kick a half-deflated ball with her feet
every soccer mom walks with a look of defeat
into the same grocery store

they are all here now in their summery tops
their tan faces dry and concerned
they have come here for something. now all of time stops
now they take on the glow of the spurned
what do you see when you look at them, reader
they were women once vibrant and girlish
they've lost track of the thing they came in for, bird feeder
or can of green beans; they are churlish
-ly sensing your soccer-mom blindness your easy
elision of all they might still be
the contempt in the tilt of your trilby
as each soccer mom enters the still-bea
ting heart of the same grocery store