Shopping For Love

I used to recreate vintage packaging for TV show and Film props. Above are samples of my work.

Shopping for Love.

By Paul Manchester

Is love an item I put on a list
With pasta, bananas, and wine?
Can something so dear hide with pretzels and beer?
Just “LOVE! On sale for $9.99!”

Would I find it with apples, or condoms, or fish,
with spices for some sort of rare foreign dish?
With TicTacs and tabloids while standing in line
Will it be at check-out with no time to dine?

A something for which I must actively shop?
Or something I’ll stumble upon?
When out and about will I suddenly stop –
will I see it before it is gone?

Is it out in the open or hidden away?
Will I find it with words or with nothing to say
to the stock boy in aisle 21?
Just when will this shopping ever be done?

Perhaps I should cross love off of my list?
I can’t seem to find it in stock.
I might live just as long… without being kissed
Could early death merely be talk?
But if shorter life in those studies is real –
and someone who lives everyday with love’s meal
lives longer than I, then I must confess
that shopping for love need have some success.

Is love fragile like eggs, or fattening like cake?
Will it melt like ice cream, or perish like steak
if I don’t rush it home – will it quickly go bad?
Will it carry diseases that make me go mad?
Will it stay fresh if kept in the cold?
If I add warmth, will it grow mold?
Or with lots of directions and very small print,
will I find that it’s ruined without sprigs of mint.
Or canned and safe till I open the seal –
With only 3 days to exist as a meal.

If I find something like, should I just get it?
Perhaps what I want is not to be found.
And Love can’t be bought by cash, check or credit.
Perhaps I should settle for Lust by the pound?

Yet, ‘tis not what I crave as I look at the clock,
I’ll push my cart forward and hope it’s in stock.
With my heart in my cart and one wheel in denial
I’m still in the store… I just need the aisle.

December 2008