Food Donation

I go through my kitchen cupboard
to get rid of things I no longer eat
or want.

boxes of rice, bags of rice. brown,
white, spiced, plain.

packets of tuna, of salmon.
a bag of red potatoes.

six cans of black beans.
two cans of vegetable soup, still
unexpired.

a bag of white flour, a bag of white
sugar.
pancake mix.
muffin mix.
gravy packets.

I load them all into a box and take
it down to St. Bernadette's
where
they have a food donation bin.

I fill it up. not because i'm a
wonderful person,

but because I can.
I remember well how the church
would
feed us,

leaving baskets of food
on the porch,

on those cold stark mornings
in Maryland.