by Dave Malone

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.
                        —Thomas Gray

You dashed,
no faster,
you sprinted like a track star
no, faster,
you sonic-sped

after bogarting
a third of a clothing rack.
folding the goods
into a neat stack
as if rolling a perfect joint
or finishing laundry,
and tucked
the Marie Kondo
bundle under an arm pit
and you

rocketed,
no faster,
bolted,
no faster,
Zeus-bolted
out of the department store
double doors.
as the floor buckled
and unbuckled behind you
from the heat and exhaust
while not one clerk
dare notice.

Dave Malone is a poet and filmmaker from the Missouri Ozarks. His newest volume, Tornado Drill, has been published by Aldrich Press in April. He can be found online at davemalone.net.