I saw her in aisle seventeen

Between the canned tuna

And endless rows of spaghetti-o’s

She was deciding between

The pureed peas and the squash 

I began to walk towards her

To tell her she had missed our calculus exam

But that it hadn't been too hard 

And to ask her if she was feeling better

But I stopped short when I noticed. 

Sophia towered over the spaghetti-o's

Her gray sweatshirt stretched tight

Over her swollen stomach

Her fingers stretched like a web over it

Methodically messaging her protruding bump

She was with her mother

Who spoke fervently into her phone, clearly

Grappling with something much more important

Than the choice between

Gerber and happy family

Her brow was knit with concentration

She rocked back and forward on her heels

As if uncomfortable in every position

Her eyes scanned the price tag 

On every single can of peas. 

I thought then of the boy

Who'd bragged about getting the girl

I wonder why he isn’t here

Holding Sophia’s hand and calming her mother

Choosing between pureed peas and squash.

I must've had a crisis of existence

The halo-top in my hand was melting

And was Sophia's stomach really that big

or was it just a trick of the fluorescent lighting

in aisle seventeen.

I walked back out to the car

Licking fallen drops of caramel-peanut-butter 

And when my mother asked where I'd been

I merely replied that I'd seen Sophia from calculus

In aisle seventeen.