Blue Vase

I got a good deal
on a blue vase

and then I filled it
with the things I had.

A beat-up dime,
a bluebonnet,

a threaded needle,
a used car key,

a scrap of soap,
a rock from the beach

at Constanta,
a strip of violet cloth,

a drop of rain
from Morgan Street

half a ticket
from the ferry

to St. John,
the o and the k

from a keyboard,
a Woolworth’s engagement ring.

And then I gave it away.
And then I gave it away.

And then I gave it away again.
And then I gave it away again.

And then I gave away
the same blue vase again.

That’s what I know
how to do.

That’s what they pay me for.
That’s one of the hundred things

I dream up and give away
trying to get out from under

my father’s debt.

–October 29, 2019