I Get Good Prices

It was a big moment in his life,

when he first learned

where he could buy a watch at a great price.

He was a watch man, owned many.

Always before then he’d paid big money,

even thousands for a nice one,

but that was here in the US.

It was in Korea and in Japan,

his first visit to both,

that his friends introduced him to their friends.

From them he bought an expensive watch,

his first Rolex of several,

and not a knock-off, for pennies on the dollar.

There were more trips; it was for his business.

On another one, he bought the best 35mm camera available,

an Asahi Pentax, with all the lenses, a flash attachment, a tripod,

which he never actually used, just added to his collection,

and on and on it went,

this impulsive spending of money to save money,

each trip a shopping bonanza at bargain prices,

jewelry for his wife, for his sisters, for his brothers’ wives,

a Hitachi stereo system for his son.

Sometimes he’d have to buy another suitcase

to haul everything back home.

They were so many, many great deals.

All good buys in the end.

All dirt cheap.

(painting of an old downtown Honolulu office building)