It’s such an old-fashioned term:
groceries. Coming down.
A beautiful term: groceries;
sort of a bag with things in it.
Groceries are coming down.
I talked about groceries. A lot.
The stomach is speaking;
it always does.
I talked a lot about groceries.
A vote for Trump. Means: cheaper.
The stomach is speaking;
a beautiful term: groceries.
A vote: for Trump means cheaper
bag with things in it.
It always does.
The stomach is speaking:
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.
About Groceries:
Author’s Note:
This poem began as an experiment in using only Donald Trump’s direct quotes about groceries within the structure of a pantoum. But as I built the stanzas, I couldn’t resist playing with punctuation—letting it reshape repetition, disrupt rhythm, and highlight the absurdity already embedded in the words.
The result is an altered pantoum—looping, declarative, occasionally nonsensical—mirroring the cadence of a press conference where confidence outweighs coherence. Every word here is his. I just rearranged them.
Your Turn: Try a Found Poem
Every word in Groceries came from real speech. Now it’s your turn.
Find a source—anything from political transcripts to product reviews, court testimony, Reddit threads, campaign flyers, or fast food receipts—and shape a found poem of your own. You can stick to a form (like a pantoum or haiku) or break the rules like I did. Rearranging and punctuating counts as creativity. No invented words—just your eyes, your edits, and your instincts.
Post your poem (or a link to it) in the comments. Let’s see what truths, ironies, or nonsense you can uncover.
Curious about found poetry? This article from Poets.org breaks down the form and shares examples from poets who turn everyday language into verse.