She struggles with two heavy baskets
and you can see puzzled faces -
why hasn't she got a trolley?
- though this is a cheap supermarket,
so some have the dearly bought wisdom
to know why she hasn't.
A clue in the baskets - basic bread.
Low-price looroll. Cheap chips.
10% off teabags. And the horrible,
miserable fifty p 'treat'
to make it bearable for another
two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks.
It's giro day but she paid a fuel bill
and so struggles with two heavy baskets
cutting her palms and straining her shoulders
because she has no pound for the trolley
© Cathy Bryant
Poorest families left in the cold by energy suppliers
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Award-winning Cathy co-edits the annual anthology 'Best of Manchester Poets', and her collection 'Contains Strong Language and Scenes of a Sexual Nature' was published by Puppywolf in 2010.
