Greg Clary

Dollar Store

 Making a Dollar Store run
for some necessities:
milk, eggs, beer, scratch-off.

Listening to small talk
in the check-out line:

“I wished they carried fresh vegetables here”
“What for?
I never seen you eating any vegetables.”
“Well, tobacco. I get about 50 servings a day.”

“We once had a beagle dog that was
good on rabbits. Never had a name.
We just called it Roger’s Dog.”

Two 40ish women in conversation:
“I’d rather commit adultery than smoke a cigarette”
2nd woman: “Well, who wouldn’t?”

“A shotgun is all you need for your home.
Don’t have to worry about a slug going through a wall.
I keep mine behind the couch for the wife to use.
Just let her deal with it all.”

An elderly woman talking to
a young mother holding her baby,
“Well, I wish good luck to the little feller
‘cause he’s come into a hard world.”

 


Greg Clary is Professor Emeritus of Rehab and Human Services at Clarion University, Clarion PA. His poems have appeared in The Rye Whiskey Review, The Watershed Journal, and North/South Appalachia: Poetry and Art, Vol 1. His photographs have been published in The Sun Magazine, Looking at Appalachia, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Watershed Journal, The Hole in the Head Review, Dark Horse, and North/South Appalachia. He was born and raised in Turkey Creek, West Virginia, and now resides in northwestern Pennsylvania.