Do five & dimes exist anymore
except in dreams? This one has
plastic chrysanthemums in several
shades of pinkish-bronze. After
hours, I think invisible clerks
nip the tattered buds, and dust
and rearrange them for the light.
Across the aisle the red-blush
plastic roses wait for sun,
and yellow daffodils for an indoor
breeze to dance.Then aisle by aisle of notions,
a hundred hues of thread; Pyrex,
potholders, measuring spoons.
And somewhere in ceramics, past
post-Depression glassware,
the porcelain piggy banks
and rearing china horses,
novelty salt & pepper shakers,
on a bottom shelf rests some-
thing I gave away or sold or
lost as long ago
as a 5 & 10-cent store.
Rummage House
Clean up for sale the rafters
parquet & studs, the whole
geometry of 87 yrs of
thumbprints. Spackle mouse-
holes in the molding. Clear
out attic, cellar & everything
between: rubber-banded cigar-
boxes, somebody's fortune
in quarters in a jar.
Lace at the window,
Ladyfingers with tea & thin
white sandwiches, consumed
Sunday afternoons
of seersucker, organza,
hydrangea & lilacs shedding
all over the air. Everything
our mothers ever wanted goes
on sale here.