POETRY April 3, 2020

Zachary B

after Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many an hour ago
 In a grocery store by the sea
That a bagger there worked whom you may know:
 The college boy Zachary B;
And I shopped in that store with no other thought
 Than to line up at his check stand, three.

I am a woman and he is a child,
 This heartthrob at check stand three;
But we lust with a lust that is more than lust,
 I and my Zachary B—
A passion that captured the eye of his checker
 Who coveted him and me.

And that is the reason that, hours ago,
 In this grocery store by the sea
She swung a divider stick hard, in an arc
 to bruise up my Zachary B.
So her coworkers came, as if called
 To step in between him and me
To shut him up in the break room
 In this grocery store by the sea.

Then the store manager, not half so happy upstairs
 Went envying him and me.
Yes! That is the reason (as all shoppers know
 In this grocery store by the sea)
He fired him for playing or fighting—who knows?
 He fired my Zachary B!

But his passion for me is stronger by far
 Than those who are older than he
 Of many far wiser than he,
And neither the man in the office above,
 Nor the demons at check stand three
Can ever dissever my heart from the ass
 Of my smoking hot Zachary B.

For someday he’ll appear with a smile and a beer,
 My beautiful Zachary B;
He’ll bring me a rose, and then we’ll get close,
 I and my Zachary B;
And so in the meantime, I lie down and I dream
 Of my boy toy, my boy toy, his muscles so lean
 Oh! To be locked up with someone like he
 In a stockroom beyond check stand three.

T R Poulson, a University of Nevada alum and proud Wolf Pack fan, lives in San Mateo, California. She supports her writing habit by working as a UPS driver. Her poetry and fiction have appeared or are forthcoming in several journals including Rattle, The Raintown Review, J Journal, Delaware Poetry Review, New Verse News, The Meadow, and Trajectory.