Mrs. Bruno

when I was very young
there was grocery store
smack in the middle of our small street
Mrs. Bruno's
we called it
she was an old widow
her husbands snap brimmed
fedora
soft and grey
hung from the top of a coat rack
as if he was sitting in the kitchen
waiting
her store,though
was magic to this child
candies breads drinks cakes
I imagined that the store was
as vast as a supermarket
its stocks never ending
once
My mother needed some vegetable
I told her I would go to Mrs Bruno's
she has it
i said she has everything
My Mom calmly told me that she would not
I went anyway and asked
when she told me no
I was stunned
I thought she could reach in back
and withdraw
anything
like heaven
I guess
I remember asking her
repeatedly
are you sure you don't have it?
and spending some time
astonished at this unfolding

we moved the next summer
I went back ,once to see the store
it was now decrepit
not at all what I remembered
[whatever is?}
I went inside
the new owners said Mrs Bruno was gone
and I saw the
hat was
as well