Irene Blair Honeycutt

It Is Okay to Weep in the Aisles

/in /by

It is okay to weep in the aisles
wiping tears before handling grapes,
sampling wines.
Red or white?  Just choose.
Your heart won’t know the difference.
No matter that the woman with the chic
side braid—her child pushing the cart,
training to become  a customer—
stares at you as though you’re out of line,
then quickly turns and squeezes lemons.
We all have our seasons.
She can’t know what you know—not yet.
It is okay to weep in the aisles.

 

 

From Beneath the Bamboo Sky (Main Street Rag, 2017)

Irene Blair Honeycutt’s fourth poetry book, Beneath the Bamboo Sky (Main Street Rag, 2017), sub-titled Poems and Pieces on Loss and Consolation, “is my attempt to honor life by giving voice to sorrow and joy. Much of the book is about the loss of siblings—a grief not often recognized in our culture.” Irene founded CPCC’s annual literary festival, now called Sensoria. Upon her retirement, the college established a Distinguished Lectureship in her name. Her work has been published in Nimrod, Southern Poetry Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology: VII, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and others. She lives in Indian Trail, and continues to teach and mentor poets.