Go to the hardware store, the old-time one
near the county line, the one with the dusty
paint-splattered floors, oak planks that creak
as you stroll up and down the aisles, looking
at welcome mats and no-soliciting signs,
all the shiny hammers and buckets of nails,
screwdrivers lined up by size. Walk past
the sandpaper and twine, silver mailboxes,
birdfeeders, rakes, shovels, and trowels.
Smile when the nice man asks if you need
help finding something. Grab some
triple A batteries and a string of fairy lights
to wrap around the porch, some sunflower
shelf paper, so yellow and happy, ten rolls,
enough for every drawer in the new house—
third move in two years because the sad
fits nowhere you live. Browse the seed packets,
and daydream about peonies, sweet peas,
and daisies. Leave with a coil of green hose,
a nozzle for spraying a fine mist across the soil
when you stand at dusk watering your garden.
Shopping for Home
Victoria Melekian lives in Carlsbad, California. Her poems and stories have been published in various anthologies. She was a runner-up in the 2018 Bath Flash Fiction Novella-in-Flash Award, a runner-up in the Women on Writing Summer 2019 Flash Fiction Contest, and her story “What I Don’t Tell Him” aired on NPR. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has twice won a San Diego Book award. For more, visit http://victoriamelekian.com