Playing the Indian Card

Monday, December 23, 2019

Don't Mock the Five and Dime





Don’t mock the five and dime
The five and dime is important to me
The five and dime is where my dreams once were
Until I noticed Delia on the next block.

Don’t mock the five and dime
The velvet paintings of Niagara Falls
The rulers, the pink erasers,
The model cars and paint-by-number puppies
The little metal wind-ups from Japan.

Don’t mock the five and dime
There once were wonders there
The painted clowns and wide-eyed kittens.
The pet turtles and the bright flourescent tetras all alive,
The magic cancelled stamps from foreign missions.
Once this was my world.
It was a big world.

Don’t mock the five and dime
I lost something important on that creaking wooden floor
It rolled under a cabinet and was gone.
The store now closed and shuttered
And I have never found anything like it again.

-- Stephen K. Roney


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