In Stop & Shop, I halted
when I heard the song “Feed the Tree” by the band
Belly playing over the loudspeakers.
Belly in Stop & Shop?
I’ve heard Pearl Jam
and REM, even Nirvana,
but those are big name bands,
not like Belly
They were only half-famous
for one year in 1993
when their album, Star
was released.
People familiar with them
would be those who listened to alternative
music in that particular year.
Belly made one more album,
then broke up, because it didn’t
sell as well as the first.
I don’t know what
warped reality I’m in
when I hear Belly
in the supermarket;
it’s like time doesn’t exist,
we’re living in a Dr. Who
episode where there’s a blip
in the continuum.
Some things don’t make sense.
I have learned that accepting
some things don’t make
sense is a way of dealing with
the spastic nature
of the Universe.
The Gen Xers who go shopping
have money
(or the people in charge think)
they play music from our youth to inspire
us to buy more vegetarian chicken
nuggets and everything bagel cottage cheese.
Does it work?
My heart stuck in my throat when I heard Belly
in Stop & Shop, and it didn’t inspire me to spend,
it made me despondent that nobody else in the store
was reminded of that year,
the one I turned twenty, when I went insane for the third time,
I believed there was a Taco Bell
on the Moon.
I thought other crazy things, I was in touch
with God, and it was my destiny to save
the world.
It was long ago,
I’m better now, but Belly
popping up in the frozen food
section jolted me.
I hope it doesn’t happen
again. But everything is erratic,
and nobody can tell what otherworldly items
might hunt us down next
in the supermarket on an ordinary
day when we’re buying groceries.
It becomes a Madeleine
when hearing “Feed the Tree,” from 1993 by Belly,
becoming swept back in time
and simply shocked
it’s playing in Stop & Shop.
Shannon O'Connor holds an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She is a fiction writer, but her roots grow from poetry. She has been previously published in The Rye Whiskey Review, as well as Oddball Magazine, Wordgathering, The Alien Buddha Press and others. She is the chair of the Boston Chapter of the National Writers Union. She lives in the Boston area, and listens to the music from her youth on occasion to be jolted, not always in a positive way.
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