Watching Antique Roadshow
with you, nearly
spewing my buffalo chicken sub when
hearing appraisal for Joseph Henry
Sharp’s Taos oil painting, I quickly begin
to lyric Sondheim’s Art Isn’t
Easy,
and you glisten with your deep sad-glad smile,
flow it to a tearful laugh, and please me
with your comic applause. You strut your style
with Market Warriors, stress
your status: I’m
a skillful picker. I study luster
of your diamond gaze tracing Bruno’s climb
down in price, his bargaining for cluster
of small chairs, toy horse. I bid you, Skilled one,
pick me. You study me, then speak,
your tone
a sweet, slow whisper: Going…going…gone.
Roger Armbrust
February 18,
2013
