I filled my bags . . .

http://www.squidoo.com/ThriftShopMaven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where All the Ladders Start

 

I visited her shop this afternoon

to rummage through the clutter and the schlock.

As usual, old tins and jars were strewn

pell-mell across the floor. I’m out of stock

in dancing bears, she yammered, but I’ve got

a thousand smithereens up on the shelf.

I’ll take a shiny penny for the lot.

I knew I’d have to fetch them for myself;

and yet, the price was right. I filled my bags

with broken glass, with beads and brittle bones;

then for good measure, reams of tattered rags,

a rusty can, a box of sticks and stones:

the rudiments of memory and art –

            the poems howling from my shopping cart.

--- Catherine Chandler  [first published

in 14 by 14, Issue 7, December 2008]