Pensioner Payday

Every second Tuesday morning
on pensioner payday
the oldies fill the supermarket
aisles as they stock up for
the next fortnight. They stop
and stare at shelves of
biscuit packets, cereal boxes,
packs of mince and sausages.
mobile customers ease their
trolleys around the less mobile
as trolley jams cause hiccups
in the traffic  flow along
the crowded aisles. Soap
powder shelves are blockaded
fruit tin pyramids besieged,
chicken shelves at the meat
freezers are surrounded
by tightly packed trolleys.

At last the wheeled tide
reaches the checkouts barrier
flowing slowly past the tills
paying for carrots and potatoes
bread and margarine.

Out on the forecourt two rows
of mobility scooters line up
nose to nose awaiting their riders
with their tightly packed bags.
Walkers with bulging bags
attached move steadily away.
We younger ones with our trundlers
step briskly along the footpath
and nifty little pensioner cars
tootle briskly down the road.

Previously posted June 2016