! Shop Until You Surface Poem by Michael Shepherd

It’s the weekend – but
you’re feeling low – well, more than low…
time, perhaps, for retail therapy…

the girls, the boys, go about it differently:
with the girls, a sense of purpose:
phone your Best Shopping Friend, arrange to meet;
for the boys, it has to be covert, set up
as accidental, just a diversion
on the way to pub or café..

Your best friend senses that you’re low;
so gently teases you by dragging off the rail
the most inappropriate; that’s easy for the girls;
it’s all huge fun, around the serious stuff;
for boys, even with your best friend – or perhaps,
because he is – the inner world is hedged with image,
self-esteem or lack of it.. a trip made best alone?

A new verse, now, for The Big Metaphor:
is this how Life Really Is?
You’re feeling sorry for yourself, the victim
of your own life, or that of others; so
your best friend who’s always there for you
teases you: here, try on this droopy number
labelled Sorrow; or here’s this grey one, Misery;
this mumsy housecoat which says Given Up;
or this public statement, the ashy
sackcloth dress marked down - Distressed Despair…
or this loose-fitting one in charcoal, labelled Sin...
or maybe, go right to the other extreme – here’s this
Life and Soul of the Party dress in vivid red? ..

The boys come out laughing – empty-handed,
or with some trivial purchase for the sake
of the ‘right’ bag…maybe he’ll come back later
and alone… the assistants raise their eyebrows,
sigh with mingled disapproval and relief;
a secretive male ritual has been roughly re-enacted.

The girls come out eyes shining; this has been
total immersion; their past, their history, washed away;
inside the crisp new bags, a light weightiness, like spun gold;
or a silky something that slides snakily in the bag,
a promise of a new life for a new you
who is one step nearer to
the real you, just waiting to step out…

Sunday morning; you awake with the soft contentment
of someone who knows who they really are;
a little nearer to that elusive self, which this strange Saturday
had shown to you a little more, of what you’re not..
to see depression’s black black low as blessing in disguise
could be a gift beyond all market price.