American Buddha Of Home Depot

American Buddha Of Home Depot
© Surazeus
2018 05 14

Sun gleams on the parking lot of Home Depot
where chirping birds flit among the young trees
while people push carts heaped with plants or tools
to load in the back of large shiny trucks.

The old man who lives by the grocery store
leaves his cardboard box hidden in the weeds
and walks the Home Depot parking lot for hours
like a prospector searching for lost treasure.

Each time he finds a penny on the asphalt,
he picks it up with greasy callused fingers,
rubs it clean with an old ragged dishcloth,
then strokes his beard as he peers at the face.

After holding the penny up to the sun,
that gleams gold red as it sets in the west,
the old man with eyes like the twilight sky
approaches people as they leave the store.

Offering the penny for them to accept,
he says, "They say a penny is good luck,
so I wish you all the luck in the world,"
then smiles as they look at it in their hand.

After giving people pennies all day,
the old man walks back to his cardboard box
and listens to crickets sing by the creek
as the headlights of cars flash in his eyes.