Alan Young describes the fascinating clutter of salesroom or junk shop in this piece from his collection Looking For The Line (Rain Poetry Books, £7.99). A graduate of Aberdeen University, the author has had a varied career, including being a freelance photographer.
ALL ITEMS MUST BE PAID FOR AND COLLECTED BY 4.00 PM FRIDAY
Whatever might have been accomplished
However many dreams fulfilled
Tragedies averted
Here we are
All down to this
This ugly place where lives are bought and sold.
~
The somewhat tarnished,
The rarely burnished,
The used and the abused,
The almost new (a china jug, chipped, she aimed it at his head)
Pop star “limited editions”,
The Golden Hinde caught in a jar,
A clinking army of whisky miniatures,
A wedding ring from a dead man’s hand,
A musty old style wind-up without the 78s,
Here and there a cuddly toy,
Ceramics (fakes and doubtfuls),
Beds,
Mattresses,
Boxes of old LPs,
Cider jugs
Beatles magazines,
Scales that once held things in balance,
Seaside postcards (no D. McGill if you please,
collectors found elsewhere),
And so it was and so it is
And so it goes and on and on.
~
Once they were such valued treasures
Once they thought they’d live forever.
~
Now these lonely bits and pieces –
All that’s left.
~
Electrical goods cannot be guaranteed.
~
Paddles must be used.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article