Something for Nothing by CL Bledsoe

There were plates and bowls, crockery
with little yellow and blue daisies
on them. Every week, IGA had a different
piece. They gave out stamps when
you bought enough. Fill up a book,
and you got something. When
the vacuum broke, Mom saved stamps
in her little book. She had to take
them all the way to the mall in Jonesboro.
Dad said, “You can’t get something
for nothing.” Mom said, “It’s not
nothing.” He wouldn’t take her
until she threatened to go by herself.
On the hour drive up, he repeated,
“You can’t get something for nothing.”
On the drive back, the vacuum sat
in the back seat, quiet as Dad up front. 

 

 

 

CL Bledsoe is the assistant editor for The Dead Mule and author of fourteen books, most recently the poetry collection Trashcans in Love and the flash fiction collection Ray's Sea World. Originally from rural Arkansas, he lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.