#118 Kevin Brophy 'Shop'

You can buy tubes of cement at the local shop that stop

your bicycle tyres being pierced by the burrs and thorns

and razor stones of the desert roads.

You can buy a lot of cans that will blend eventually,

like you, into the landscape’s iron hue.

You can buy playing cards if you ask, though sand

is the enemy of their silky ways with numbers.

The tracks we make here converge on the shop

or circle round it hazily, thoughtfully, as if considering

the meaning of the fruit, the soft drink, frozen ices

and the aisle devoted to emergency solutions and supplies.