The exercise:
Write a four line poem about something or someone that has been: pushed aside.
That was the general feeling I was picking up from the vendors around us this morning. The farmers market was shifted from our usual place on the first block of Main Street to the street adjoining it (same as two weekends ago) and the next block of the street parallel to Main.
That meant there was enough room for all the vendors... but still no room for our vehicles. Turns out? There's a big difference between making twenty vendors park their vehicles, unload their wares, and then park elsewhere and making sixty or so vendors do that.
The community market, however, got to stay exactly where they are every week - the second, third, and (I think) fourth blocks of Main Street. So the farmers were feeling a little pushed aside, especially those of us who got there on the later side of setup (hi, bringing a toddler with us early in the morning tends to slow things up a bit), as we were quite far away from where people would expect to find us.
Business ended up being okay for us, but I spoke with and overheard several others who did significantly less trade than normal.
Pretty sure we won't be trying this experiment again next year.
Tonight Kat, myself, and Max have our home to ourselves once more. Definitely enjoying it right now, but we'll see if that feeling lasts once work recommences on Monday evening.
Mine:
An elbow to the face
Moved me from my place.
I can do naught but wail -
You're first to the sale!
3 comments:
That does sound rather less than ideal for the market. When you say it was an experiment, does that mean that the people who organise the market were trying it out as a way of keeping Main street more open, or use it for something else? I would have thought that the Main street was ideal for a farmer's market myself, but maybe things are different over in Canada :)
At least you did have a good day's selling, which is something given how much you'd managed to harvest! How was Max by the end of it all?
Heh, great little poem, I think you've captured the essence of the most popular sales perfectly there!
Pushed aside
I can't believe it's been a year
Since I didn't become a better man.
I've pushed aside your wants and wishes,
focused on being the best me I can!
Though my heart yearns for those grey stone walls
And my skin aches to feel the ancient green,
Duty calls, quieting the dream prior to maturation
All for protecting them from him.
Greg - sorry, I should have been more clear. There was a triathlon happening this weekend in Penticton and they were setting up the finish line in the first block of Main Street. My impression is that if that happens again next year we'll stick to just the short adjacent block with a limited number of vendors.
And yeah, as far as I'm aware, everyone loves having the market on Main Street, so I don't expect that to change any time soon.
I quite like your take on the prompt, especially the final line :)
Ivybennet - ah, a whole world of stories waiting to be told, just hinted at in your four lines. Very nicely done!
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