CAN OF CAT FOOD AND A TOMATO

It's late at night. A woman stops into the grocery--deserted save for her and the cashier--and plops down a canof cat food and a tomato.
The cashier says is that all there is--and as the womanbundles against the nighton the way backto her car, that linefrom the Peggy Lee songstarts playing in her head.And in a way she's gladthat it's been reduced to this.
With The Sonofabitch long gone,and all the kids grown and moved on as well,it's just the pain(but it's a good one)of sharp claws digginginto your skinat 5 o'clock in the morning--a wakeup call more reliablethat Sonny and Cherwailing "I Got You Babe."
And that's a hurt that,unlike most of the others that came and wentover the long and the short of it, doesn't leave any hidden scars.