the other day i made another poor decision.
& today i find myself once more
in the shoe store over on prince street
& some other avenue or street.
it seems that now
i don’t like the shoes that, after all,
i handpicked after careful consideration
during my lunch break:
either on monday or tuesday.
it seems that now i would like
to exchange them for a different pair:
except,
except that now that i’m less doubtful
about what i want
they don’t have my size
& i don’t want to settle this time or the next
for choice # 2 or choice # 3,
despite everything nowadays
requiring so much energy,
so much enthusiasm,
so many unpaid or unacknowledged after-hours.
“i’m sorry but we don’t have them
in stock,” they tell me
with a rehearsed smile,
after going to the back again just to make sure.
thus i get a refund & ask the manager
to give me a buzz
if in a week or 2 my shoe size comes in
with their new shipment.
for after 14 days i can’t promise anyone
let alone my feet
that i still will have the dough
to buy them, to painfully break them in:
money, too, being,
like so many other things in my life,
scarce resource,
time-sensitive material.
the other day i threw my old pair away.
c. a. campos, 2011
