Lynn Levin: Buying Produce from the Marked-Down Cart

I rescue them at times from the back of the store—
cellophaned oranges and apples 
packaged good-side-up.
I imagine them as little brains
thinking of the days when they were on the tree
and full of promise. 
 
Mostly I leave the rusty beans, blotched pears
to the gleaners, calling to mind my days 
as a gleaner at Dominick’s and Star
when I approached with furtive hunch 
the scratched and bruised, bought them
 
with my meager pay. What a bounty of salads and pies 
they made me who saved them from the heap. 
More than anything I hate waste
and yet how much
of my own life have I let go unused.

Copyright 2020 Lynn Levin. From The Minor Virtues (Ragged Sky, 2020)