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.
'Od's Blog: Catholic comments on the passing parade.
