Sunday Stroll

Potted yard-gnome in a clump of dry grass

girl at a window of unwashed glass

and the shopkeeper turns it over and says

look at the back here is the artist’s signature

but I see bird tracks and arthritic hands

the colored paths of an old butter knife

and the child at the window is an old woman now

so beautiful down from the shelf

and the shopkeeper smiles when I say

do you really want money for this it’s priceless

July 28, 2019

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William Michaelian