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poetry On the Fourth Wednesday of November

By silent agreement, I watch two women—one white, one black—honor a personal transaction.

On the Fourth Wednesday of November

By Peter Neil Carroll

Outside the little grocery, a woman

in a black cloth coat and feather hat

waits quietly near the electric door.

 

A shopper, stocked with pie crust,

biscuit mix, garlic flavored Velveeta

for the grits, pushes her cart

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with one hand, the other fingers

a folded $5-dollar bill, looking  

to give it away for Thanksgiving.

Neither says a word.

Peter Neil Carroll is Poetry Moderator of Portside.org.

His seventh collection of poems, Talking to Strangers, will be published in 2022.