I was inspecting,
or rather, more accurately,
fondling a melon.
Quite engrossed in fact
when I heard my name
and swung instantaneously
to seek the voice
that spoke the word -
that word so embedded,
so engrained.

Surreptitious glances
of respective trolley fodder
while pursuing the delightful banter
springing from the unexpected encounter,
smiling in tango while words
slipped effortlessly into pirouettes.

How lovely! I said,
sailing around the world!
How exciting!

And you?, he said
Your plans?

I replied with glinting unrepentant eyes,
distracted as I was
by the pinging of sunbeams
off the glossy aubergines
enchanted by the courgettes capering,
the artichokes misbehaving.

I have none.

A perplexing pause preceded
the spontaneous combustion of complicit jocularity
while fellow shoppers passed by,
perplexed.