Yard Sale

Books, aromatherapy kits, and sheet music—
objects that have lived in the presence of people
and will need new owners to remain relevant.
The cups would like to be adopted as a set,
the spaghetti measurer is skittish around children.
Someone has left a newspaper balancing
between two levels of a tiered table. The front page
glitters with bad news, anything good
is tucked into metaphor: a rollercoaster
of emotions later the dog returns unharmed
and the family resumes its battles against
the perils on page 1. No one wants to buy anything.