Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Katie Boord has won our writing contest on the theme Humanity with her poem "Liquor Store."
Katie Boord is from Prairie Village, KS. She works in a geology lab by day, and sings in an indie rock band by night. You can find more of her writing on her Substack, Backyard Notes.
Liquor Store
There’s a liquor store down the road
That’s been here for decades
Chipping paint, handmade signs, classic rock
Make me feel like an outsider
In this town and this time.
The cashier’s old enough to be my father
But his tattoos are newer than mine
He hums along to Bon Jovi with the freedom
Of someone who never cared to learn the words.
An old man follows the bell on the door
Boots dusty, face sweaty with heat and years
He buys a plastic bottle of tequila
Two dollars and forty-five cents, exact change
He says “see you tomorrow, Joe” and leaves
With the certainty of someone with few choices.
But he smiles with the clarity of a man
Who has looked death in the face.
I buy my bottle of wine and return
To my house and my pile of books
That might never say as much as a trip
To my local liquor store.