poems from my childhood

The Flour Sack

When I was ten
mother would send me
on errands on my bicycle

into town
which was two miles
away.

I had a basket
on the front of the handlebars.
Sometimes I’d

have to bring home
a ten pound sack
of flour.

The same kind
of flour sacks from which
my mother made underwear

for my brothers and me.
Chicanos invented recycling
or so it seemed.

All she would buy was the elastic
for the waistband down at the local
Duke & Ayres Five and Dime.

It was I guess
the equivalent of today’s
Everything’s A Dollar stores.