The couch showed up outside the Rent-a-Center in the summer
when the sun gnashed its prowess on jagged southern fried cement…
The couch had a sign back then:
FOR SALE $250
Seemed high for the brown-upholstered monument to late capitalist mediocrity
And sure enough
it didn’t sell
And the next week a new sign went up:
FOR SALE $350
When a product doesn’t sell, mark it up. That’s businessing 101.
In the next few weeks somebody ripped off the sign.
There was a dark rectangle where it used to be.
A sun-bleached placard for Rent-a-Center’s failure.
Over the following months
the couch lost all its cushions
to people who either really wanted cushions
or who thought it was funny to steal cushions.
A month after the cushions left
a fine white powder was spread all over the
seat of the couch.
One could presume there was a bug problem.
On New Year’s morning
I saw a man sleeping on the couch
and I thought,
“Ah, finally it’s put to good use.”
The blankets of the sleeper were stuffed behind the couch
for the next few days
and then the couch finally disappeared.
It was too much to offer a public good.
Every desecration was acceptable
until the dang homeless were offered a modicum of comfort.
Good one, Rent-a-Center. You win.
