Mimi - Mona Poetry: Cutting Your Teeth A Second Time

©Cutting Your Teeth A Second Time

What was the point in trying

to cut your teeth a second

or third time with the

online dating market?

All that was left for us

were the Reduced To Clear

and the Sell By dates had

expired months ago.

You’re a virgin only once.

For days before I entered

any store, I was resigned

to never finding what I want.

And, when I entered the

local market, I never

expected to feel as though

I had missed the party.

I found my mind racing

as I wandered around

the desolate market

while enduring the

pains of my hunger.

I wandered the empty aisles...

maybe for half of an hour...

thinking perhaps

everyone already knew

something I did not

and that was why they

hurried up and down

the bare lanes with

lists in their hands.

Some shoppers were only

slightly hungry and wanted

a snack or two for the short

term; other snackers wanted

something to satisfy them

for the entire day. I

was on the hunt for all of

the ingredients for a meal

to sustain me and provide

leftovers for the long haul.

But the shelves were bare,

the best of the best and even

the barely best were gone. I

suspected they would be.

I should have left, not

because it was closing time;

the store was open twenty-four/

seven/three hundred

sixty-five. All the time

in the world was not enough

for most of us find what

we were searching for.

I wanted the best meal

but all that was left was

Spam.

So much Spam. It was

impossible to see anything

else for all the Spam.

And hummus.

There was an aisle

dedicated to hummus.

Love is hummus—

apparently.

Funny that since I

don’t like it all that much.

I was so awfully hungry

for something resembling

hummus. Way too

hungry to make

decent purchase decisions.

I watched desperate

shoppers grabbing anything

in sight...cans of beans...

as I left the market.

I wondered, is there

hummus out here?

That’s what I wanted.

Hummus.

Fresh hummus.

Not hummus touched

by hundreds of hands

turning it over to

reveal the expiration date

and replace it on the shelf.

Love is not stale or

bitter or dying from

an expiration date.

Love is sweet, full of life.

You don’t have to

cut your teeth on

Love the second time around.

Mimi Wolske

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