A man sits on a lawn chair

Beneath a sun-stained umbrella

With sunglasses perched

Atop a reddened nose.

Laid out on a folding table

Before him,

“A Happy Marriage” $4.

He haggles

With a couple

Who can pay

No more than $3.

It’s fine, he sells.

The two look at

Each other

With fear and love

In their eyes.

And the old man is rid

Of his broken dream, just

Like that.

It belongs to somebody

Else now.