8.14.01

Having only three dollars in one’s wallet
prevents the purchase
of your usual brand of cigarettes
and
sends one in sullen quest of bulk pipe tobacco to assuage
the nicotine monkey until payday.

Having only three dollars in one’s wallet
and a nearly empty fuel tank,
means I cannot be driving all over God’s creation
in search of pipe tobacco
and
so, I try my usual two minutes away
convenience beer smoke re-supply store
and
discover that my Pakistani friends have no idea
about the words pipe and tobacco when spoken
in close combination
and
so, I drive to the local tobacconist
and
see him roll up his OPEN flag and lock the door
while I wait at a red light on an adjacent corner
and
so, in a thick sweltering post rainfall steam,
I drive on toward the mega country wide super
supposed to have it all department store
and
I think my eyelids are sweating.
and
the mega country wide super supposed to have it all department store
has one pouch of my brand left on it’s dwindling near empty shelves
but,
having only three dollars in one’s wallet
prevents the paying the three dollar and forty nine cent
plus 8.25 percent sales tax
and
so, I return home
jittery
sweating
and
defeated
my wallet still fairly bulging with its three dollar treasure trove.