shriven

i heard once about a family from somalia
who moved to america and on the supermarket
shelves all the cart pushers thinking weak
about the mother and basketball about her two just recently
no longer bone skinny sons
a can of CRISCO with the letters all yellow
and a picture of a turkey dinner
on a soothing blue background
and took it home and opened it for
dinner and found not a turkey dinner but
a cylinder of lard which they scooped
with their fingers confused and
chewed the fat before throwing it away and
walking to the mcdonalds across the
street from the apartment and bought fries
and cokes because what is halal and the
boys wanted hamburgers and milkshakes
but knew not to say so and the somalian
in the air above the white plastic tabletop
didn’t attract any attention at all except
the frustration of the thirty-four year old
white female cashier approximately 5’ 6”
last seen confused at heavily accented english