She saved soaps, too,

rolled slivers into balls

and served them up

like sherbet

in a glass dish.

On Saturday we joined her

as she hit the sales –

the garage and yard and supermarket sales.

She was a bulk buyer,

ahead of her time,

filling first the wagon

and then the freezer.

Yes, together we sailed

that blacktop of cash,

we sunned on a river of crude.

And never once did I see

the calamity to be,

never once the fray in her mood.

Nor did I wonder

amid all that plunder

if the tack of our skipper

served the sailor in me.