She paused in the canned foods aisle, and an old man in a jelly-smeared cardigan rubbed against her. He was holding a can of northern beans. Proxemics. Haptics. Chironomy. “How much?” the old man begged. His ancient, chalk mouth made an “O.” The smear of jelly seemed to spread out, fattening. A new stomach. “Eighty-nine cents,” she told him. The old man’s chin began to tremble. “Not the beans!” he cried. “I didn’t mean the beans!”
Heather Cousins has a PhD in creative writing from the University of Georgia and an M.A. from The Writing Seminars of Johns Hopkins University. Her first book of poetry, Something in the Potato Room, won the Kore Press First Book Award and is forthcoming in Fall 2009. She has recently been published in The Yalobusha Review and Country Dog Review.
Love it! Made me laugh right out loud. I always appreciate something that makes me laugh.