Last night I bought a set of scales.
A knock on my door had revealed a tinker
With back bent by the weight of his wares.
His pack shrugged off
He spread a scarlet cloth on the ground
And scattered upon it were:
Potions for: love
hate
… forgetting
Powders to
cure aches in: spines
joints
hearts
Obsidian pendants
Bronze bracelets
St Christopher medals
And a set of scales.
White plastic
Nondescript
Digital
A puzzled stare and the tinker explained.
These scales give the true weight
of things.
Memories
Emotions
They all add to an object
And so, I bought a set of scales and
weighed everything I could find
That ornament from Greece?
1 pound
A pen, chewed and scratched from
poem after poem?
Half a stone
That small, circular badge I'd worn?
The one that first caught your eye?
The one that set all this in motion?
More than a car.
Until tentatively
Cautiously
I
stepped
onto
the
scales
and the dial?
It read
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