A Wonderful Night Poem by Chance Foreman

Allen Ginsburg ambushed me
The other night
In the neon fruit supermarket
While I was out perusing for a late night snack
He howled at me
Till I gave him the light of day
And believe me
He took every minute of it
Down the aisle of chips
He followed me
And laughed every time I tried to pick one
And danced a little jig
Wile comparing the Doritos Nacho Cheese
To a Hollywood hopeful all decked out in plastic
“They all taste great”
He said
“But in the end they are nothing but junk food”
We peeked around the corner
To the produce section
And witnessed Garcia Lorca
Wandering way down by the watermelons
Allen Ginsburg whispered to himself
“What are you doing down there? ”
Intrigued...
Curious...
Innocent...
We took a left turn
And high stepped arm in arm
Down aisles of hungry men shopping for wishful women
And made up prophetic jingles
For products yet undiscovered
I turned my head for a second
And witnessed Carol Sandburg
At the end of a long aisle
Where over heated workingmen
Purchased underpaying jobs
He was painting murals on the floor
With a mop and bucket full of dirty water form the Chicago River
I turned my head back and saw
Allen Ginsburg staring transfixed
At an old man poking among the meats and eyeing the grocery boys
“Who is it? ” I whisper
He grabbed my arm
“It's him, the childless, lonely, old grubber”
“It's Walt Whitman”
We followed him as
He meandered through
The phosphorescent frozen vegetables
Whistling whimsically in tune
With their mournful warbling
As they lay stiffly in their vegetable morgue
At the end of the aisle
He paused and looked back
And for a moment I caught his eye
The world warped and disintegrated into an instant
I was surrounded by a quiet forest of giant old souls that gently brushed their branches across my mind
The peace was profound
But so easily shattered by the blink of an eye
To my great regret
I blinked...
And the blathering world slammed back into my head.