A Supermarket in California Summary

In this poem, Ginsberg shops in a supermarket and as he does, he thinks about the poet Walt Whitman. He talks of having a headache as he walked the side streets to the store. Ginsberg notices husbands, wives and babies in the supermarket. He also imagines seeing the Spanish poet and dramatist Garcia Lorca standing by the watermelon section of the store. Ginsberg also imagines seeing Walt Whitman in the meat section of the store. He imagines that Walt Whitman is eying grocery boys and asking them normal and absurd questions. Ginsberg imagines following Whitman through the store with an imaginary store detective following him. In his imagination, Ginsberg asks Whitman where they are going. He dreams of touching one of Whitman's books and further dreams of their adventure walking throughout the supermarket. He wonders if they...