JENNIFER SCHOMBURG KANKE

After I’m Grown, My Mother Discovers the Costco

Six loaves of Nature’s Own
Five jars of peaches in light syrup
Forty-eight ounces of frozen fruit
and some big ass chicken pot pie.
My mother is making up for lost time,
for chip chop ham and shit on a shingle
for syrup sandwiches and empty shelves.
She is making up for night shifts,
for hand-me-down clothes and no school trips,
for the black and white television
sitting atop the broken color one.
She is making up for not knowing enough
to not know she didn’t know enough.