Bronx love rite: 1940

Together they sortie,
Young mother with cart,
Whitened matriarch behind pushing two year old.

Wheels click over concrete squares.
Hurry past 205th, terminal to the underground,
Hang-out of vagrants.
Down Bainbridge, the Avenue of Plenty.

Fill the basket. An unseeded twist from Hanscoms,
A quarter pound of Daitches lox, slice it thin.
Ground chuck from the butcher Olash, Kosher Bosher.

Saunter by the marqueed Mecca,
Celluloid escape from Rinso White.
Check out the double feature.
At last the Great Atlantic and Pacific.
Plain milk a penny cheaper.
Scoop out the cream.

A sacred ritual this,
Maternal devotion,
Foraging mission abroad,
To nourish and sustain.