the closing store

they walked into a store they had been in many times. the merchandise lay fallow, salespeople clustered in hushhush little groups. what would happen to these people?

this great giant was closing. the store, at its inception, a small space under a loud elevated train. at its decimation, a chain reduced to financial rubble.

they felt like vultures, picking over a not yet dead carcass. this feeling stayed with them as they strolled through the various departments, halfheartedly looking for bargains.

unable to focus, unable to buy, saddened by a closing of part of their history, they silently walked out, hand in hand, into the cold.