Old Items Collector

He’d pass every Thursday, right

after dawn, one could hear his

voice awakening most villagers,

the young refuge collector with

his wide muscly shoulders and

sweet smile who’d buy anything

the villagers wanted to discard

everything they’d give away or

sell to the young man with

the sweet smile, one man’s refuse

the other man’s treasure, the saying

went and the collector was paying fair

money for any item: pieces of steel,

rusted, bent, and useless or

the worn-out desk of the crazy poet,

who passed a few weeks earlier.

Who would care to keep a desk of

the fool who wrote poems no

sensible man could understand?