Market Fluctuation
Time is what happens when nothing else does.
I find the pennies around my house and stack them
like little monuments and find the value
in building things is finding an object
in which to stuff yourself. Take this
wonky side-table, abused by so many movers
and owners and excited dogs, knocking
their loving tails. I found it on the street,
buffeted by broken down cardboard boxes.
I called no friend, I hauled it up my stairs
to prove I could. Now it’s mine. I don’t take
care of the things I have. It’s a failure
of character, though not as bad as one of those
could be. The table is a useful story about
my greatness. When it becomes garbage
it’s garbage. It’s always been that anyway.
It doesn’t know any other life because it is
a table. I fill its drawers with pennies. “I am
sort of like God,” I tell it, before realizing I’m
in a room talking to no one. Will I ever be satisfied.
*
Sarah Rosengarten is from New York. She has work forthcoming in Stanchion Magazine. She lives in Inwood with two cats.
