Frontline
written by: Elizabeth Barton
@DestinyAngel25
Supermarkets become a frontline of battle
(don’t mention the toilet paper, or the brawl
over the last chicken in a Hawkes Bay store).
Buying groceries is a military operation,
full metal jacket; surgical mask, rubber gloves,
a vial of hospital-grade sanitiser
fit to knock me out if I inhale too deeply.
My mask practically blinds me as I fumble,
glasses steam up as I thumb through my list.
Dodging bullets of any innocent cough is a new art;
aisles are trenches, the enemy swift and unseen;
I dart through my chores with a sniper handcart.
Elizabeth Barton is an artist and poet from New Zealand, with work featured in Pink Plastic House, Fevers of the Mind, Black Bough Poetry, Flight of the Dragonfly Poetry, The Hooghly Review, Vita Brevis Literature, Nothing Divine Dies, and Literary Revelations' inaugural publication, Hidden in Childhood. A winner of the 2020 White Label Cinq competition, her collection Mirrored Time was published in July 2023 by Hedgehog Poetry Press. Elizabeth has authored two further poetry collections, All Revolutions Begin This Way and Auroral, both published by Alien Buddha Press. Her art is in private and public collections worldwide, including the V & A Prints Collection, London.
