Thou Shalt Not Mock the Five and Dime

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

The five and dime is important to me

The five and dime is where my dreams once were

Until Delia on Cumberland Street.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

The velvet paintings of Niagara Falls

The shallow display drawers full of the smell of pink erasers

And bottles of LePage’s mucilage secretly made, we knew, from melting down old horses.

The paint-by-number portraits of Rin Tin Tin

With his tongue out

Showing two shades of pink

The little metal wind-ups from Japan.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

The kissing gouramis who will not kiss for me

And live for only a week

Even if I feed them a lot.

The painted turtles from the Mississippi

I think I will take one home and name him Albert

And mother will scream if he gets loose

And dies under the couch.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

The tiny tins of chrome paint and paint with gold shimmers

And whitewall stickons

And fire-tongued racing decals

For that real custom car show Roger Barris effect

And Billy Bishop biplane balsa wood and tissue paper makings

To shoot down enemy zeppelins in the attic.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

The praying hand Virgin Mary night lights that glow green in the dark

Because they are actually radioactive, like Hiroshima.

And we were not really scared of the dark

Not that much.

Except for if the closet door was open, maybe.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime.

The stereo viewfinders and slide wheels of the Seattle World's Fair

And laughing hyenas in technicolour.

The metal taps we could screw to the bottom of our shoes and walk down the street

Sounding important.

Even if we were littler than the other kids.

And bola bats and big marbles with little pinwheel things inside you could see through 

That were really pretty but you never knew what to do with

And jacks that hurt to step on

That maybe girls did things with

We did not understand.

And groucho glasses with eyebrows attached

That girls thought looked stupid

And Pez dispensers that you bought

Though you didn't like Pez that much

But because Ricky Steinberg had one.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime

There once were wonders there

The portraits of unshaven sad-faced clowns

With a broken flower in their hat.

The multicoloured cancelled stamps from Scarborough foreign missions.

Thou shalt not mock the five and dime.

Once this was my world.

It was a big world.

I lost something there many days ago.

On that creaking wooden floor.

It rolled under a counter and disappeared

Like the last dime of your allowance.

I fell to my knees

And still I could not find it.

I fall to my knees

And still cannot find it.

Now the five and dime is dark and shut and shuttered.

And I have not found the like of it again.

--Stephen Kent Roney