This Is Not Nostalgia, by Anne Panning 

“Rural America’s in Decline” the headlines read.
I do the math of corn and beans, subtract Main Street.
My parents’ general store demolished now and dead.

They came for overalls, Havarti, twine, white bread;
It’s best to buy your bacon off the slab.
“Rural America’s in Decline” the headlines read.

Who makes the butter now? The liverwurst? My plate instead
Piled high with mac & cheese and refried dreams.
My parents’ general store demolished now and dead.

On Friday nights, before we went to bed
We candled eggs in back, their golden light our secret moon.
“Rural America’s in Decline” the headlines read.

When farmers’ milk checks finally came, they shed
Their fears and filled their carts with ice cream, pork chops, pears.
My parents’ general store demolished now and dead.

“No Farms, No Food,” the yellow bumper sticker said.
Our fate is tied to spaces filled with dairy cows and ice.
“Rural America’s in Decline” the headlines read.
My parents’ general store demolished now and dead. 

~~~

Anne Panning published a memoir, Dragonfly Notes: On Distance and Loss (2018). She has also published a novel, Butter, as well as a short story collection, The Price of Eggs, and Super America, which won The Flannery O’Connor Award and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her short publications include Bellingham Review, River Styx, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, The Florida Review, Passages North,  Black Warrior Review, The Greensboro Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Quarterly West, The Kenyon Review, Five Points, River Teeth, and Brevity (4x). She is currently working on a memoir about her late father—a barber and addict.  She teaches creative writing at SUNY-Brockport.