Shopping Plaza Days
written by: John Grochalski
in the 1980s
in my neighborhood
we were feral children
latchkey kids
living latchkey lives
and walking to the shopping plaza
made you feel like big shits
little princes of suburbia
with couch cushion change in our pockets
mint snuff
carton ice tea
baseball card
and fistfight afternoons
in the half-empty parking lot
those woods behind that mammoth place
where teenagers smoked and fucked
a paradise of asphalt
where the broken bottles
glittered like diamonds
us little princes of suburbia
loitering in the languid sun
of daydream summers
not a care in the world
not a goddamned worry
until our parents came home.
John Grochalski is the author of five poetry collections, three novels, and the novella Wolves of Berlin Play Amateur Night at the Flute and Fiddle Pub (Alien Buddha Press 2024). He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Latest posts by John Grochalski (see all)
- Shopping Plaza Days - May 12, 2025
- Scenes from a Hotel Lobby - January 1, 2025
- Rick the Pilot Walks His Dog During a Climate Crisis - August 13, 2024
