still shopping for images

inside the pharmacy
inside the mall
a girl, my student (?)
paused beside
a hanging plant
in a greenhouse room
but dark
like an aquarium
and reached up
to touch a leaf

   "my grandfather told me this was here
          when he used to come here"

but of course that's wrong
only new dead things
populate the drugstore
and they're supposed to
get out of there
ASAP

the next thing
the costume scholar said--

   "nostalgia as a product
     in global modernity"

there's a place for it
on the shelf (?)

plants might outlive
your grandfather
of course

so might
stuff

maybe the dream
wished to insist
things take root
and keep growing
anyway

what we miss
and how we keep
finding ways
to buy it back

deep inside the
deep inside