The Thrift Store

Watching hope filter arched
Ringlets through
Gilded mesh

Snippets of delinquent garments lie
Here.
Tossed and carried,
Alighted and harried,
Divorced and married.
Such is a store
Of thrift.

Brandishing plumes of garish steel
Sits one.
It peeks and retreats
Blindly perceiving
Mildly conceiving.

Ten cents is nine cents plus one cent.
Nothing except a cent can be added to cents but sense.
Yet he dispenses with sense and spends immense
Cents

Which, add up if given the appropriate
Time
And
Effort
And cause. Superfluous, casual, experimental, raucous, traditional, particular,
Eccentric,
Ego-centric,
It is here,
On a shelf.
Ten cents.