Timothy Robbins

Aldi Left and Right

Timothy Robbins

On the left as you enter, in buckets aimed like cannons, the usual bouquets of down-on-their-luck Voltaires. On the right, a woman pumps clear hand-sanitizer into one palm and rubs it in with the lotion motions her husband

watches (and sometimes sees) every night before she gathers herself next to him (sometimes close) under the sheets. It’s not that shoppers usually swap looks. It’s that they notice the lack now that some follow CDC guide-

lines their neighbors trespass. You sing into your mask. You feel the good cheer gather there floating in a pocket of carbon dioxide. Are any other shoppers leaking songs? None you can hear. Some may stick our their tongues.

Timothy Robbins has been teaching English as a Second Language for 30 years. His poems have appeared in many literary journals and has published five volumes of poetry: Three New Poets (Hanging Loose Press), Denny’s Arbor Vitae (Adelaide Books), Carrying Bodies (Main Street Rag Press) Mother Wheel (Cholla Needles Press) and This Night I Sup in Your House (Cyberwit.net). He lives in Wisconsin with his husband of 22 years.