The Corner Grocery — Blackbird Archive

← v15n1, Spring 2016

My mother worked.

My middle brother studied.

My older brother studied and worked.

And me, I was cared for in the corner grocery

of the Galicians Pilar and Luis.

The Galician Pilar let me help her.

My specialty was weighing the fruit.

One time, accidentally, I saw her nipples.

Even now, grocery stores excite me.

childhood work family

Javier Etchevarren

Javier Etchevarren is the author of F á bula de un hombre desconsolado (Yaugurú, 2014) and Desidia (Yaugurú, 2009). His poems will appear in Am é rica invertida: An Anthology of Younger Uruguayan Poets which is forthcoming from the University of New Mexico Press. His poems have also appeared in Palabras Errantes, the Notre Dame Review , Colorado Review, and Waxwing. Photo by Cecilia Lage