Don’t forget the wine (a conversation) by Kevin D.LeMaster

I picked up sauce

at a ten for ten sale

a new brand we

hadn’t had before

a loaf of crusty french

and some thin spaghetti

one veggie, one regular

a woman behind me

at checkout

said that wine would

complete the meal

give it a crimson flavor

bold, yet beautiful

as she clutched her

ten dollar Zinfandel

in her tight white

knuckles

a man with the

Red Stripe beer

ahead of me

agreed that a rosé

would definitely give

it body

but I’ve never developed

a taste for fermentation

for the bitter fruit of

class or station

the woman said that

Red Stripe was best

if served ice cold

the man said he tried

it before it was available

in this country and it

was the best

the woman agreed

re-affirming that it

needed to be ice cold

and when she realized

I was a beer drinker

she grew more silent

as the man left the line

with tattered shirt and

bug spray purchase

I realize he was just

a connoisseur of all

things that he wished

he could be

the woman behind me

was just trying to

forget who she was

with her bottle of

wine, glistening off

the edge of the flicker

of fluorescent light

Kevin lives in South Shore Kentucky with his wife of 31 years. His poems have been found at The Lakes, Appalachian Heritage, Praxis magazine, Rockvale Review, Jellyfish Review and others.

He has served as poetry editor for Shawnee State’s literary magazine The Silhouette and has been on the selection committee for their woman’s literary magazine, Tapestries.  

His work in "Rubicon: Words and art inspired by Oscar Wildes De Profundis" has been nominated for a Pushcart prize.