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When He Strolled the Mall
Merrill Oliver Douglas

Without fail he would
drift into one of those
national chain stores,
glass cases
fitted with lights
that shone down
on necklaces,
bridal sets posed
on black pedestals.
It wasn’t the sparkle
that drew him. It wasn’t
the way gems split
light into its elements:
aqua, flamingo, citrus.
My father leaned close
to those counters
to see how the diamonds
stood in their settings,
to form an opinion,
picture the man
in black nylon smock
at his workbench,
pair of loupes clipped
to his glasses,
radio slicing the day
into half hours—
music, traffic, news—
another man
who handled ring clamps,
burnishers, small wheels
for grinding out rough spots.

—
Merrill Oliver Douglas is the author of the poetry chapbook Parking Meters into Mermaids (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in Baltimore Review, Barrow Street, Tar River Poetry, Stone Canoe, Little Patuxent Review, and Whale Road Review, among others. She lives near Binghamton, New York, where she works as a freelance business writer.

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