4 o’Clock Craft Show

On the road home from buying some smokes
I passed a hand-painted cardboard sign
for a craft show, just today until four.
I was never one for art or old wives' tales,
but today on impulse and rash chance
I took the turn and followed the trail.
I found a weary house with broken windows,
weatherworn white paint and a collapsing roof.
An old woman with creases around her eyes
that whispered from an era of bitter burdens
sat at a table with an ivory cane at her side.
Her pale hands were wrinkled and wilted
and her hair was chalky and wire thin.
She smiled at me from behind her glass eye
and called out, "Take a gander 'round, sonny,
if ya see somethin' ya like, let ol' Annie know."
I saw the mason jars full of colored sand,
and the patchwork quilts with children's names,
the rough charcoal sketches of forgotten faces
and the crude pottery once forged in a kiln.
I looked over the first bowl and the second,
and picked up the third, an amber-glazed bowl
with dilated dents and harsh, husk edges,
and deep inside I saw prints from fingers
belonging to a worn woman of age and grief,
imperfections that were intentionally left
simply to appreciate for their faults' sake.
"Do ya like 'er, sonny? She can be yers,
for jus' an Abe an’ a George it's all yers."
I took out my wallet and gave her the cash,
and she asked, "Buyin' it fer yer sweetie?"
I told her no, that I wasn't in love anymore.
As her grinning eye changed to pity, she said
"Sonny, ya ain't livin' life without someone,
with no one to love an' love ya back th' same."
I told her that one day I found I wasn’t loved back
and that things were just no longer that simple.
So then she replied, "Not true there, sonny,
love is somethin' easier than kids today think,
ta show love is th' reason we're all even here,
but one day ya kids will learn it on yer own."
I didn’t really have an answer to give back
so I gave Annie thanks and took my yellow bowl
and got into my truck to head back home,
but on the drive back I came to the realization
that today I went to a craft show and bought a bowl
and met God in the glass eye of an old woman.