One woman
carried a set of wind chimes
through the big box store
from the far corner
where she found them,
carried them through
aisles of fluorescence
and plastic
and too much of everything
(all cheap,)
and the air around her
turned delicate,
fragile.
It turns out
the sound of cheap
acrylic and aluminum
is anything but cheap
and the thing she carried
in her hands
was exactly the magic
she’d thought it was
and as she consulted
with the pharmacist
about the medicine
that made her little boy
feel worse not better
the air around her was charged
with light and color unseeable,
with the sound of fragile hopes
scattering outward,
spreading bright all over the place.
spreading bright all over the place.
