In My Spare Time Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

While shopping thrift stores
I stumbled on one
with a special 60% off sale.
I love such fortuitous times.
They make me feel immensely
rich just on such days.

Conceive that I can literally buy
anything or everything.
And imagine my joy
when I picked a 13.5 inch high
hollow bronze sculpture
tagged with a hollow price.

At that moment
all my learning about art history
paid off in a split second.
It was not that the piece
I thought exorbitantly valuable
that it wasn't as I discovered later.

It is that I pinpointed the year
and style and possibly the artist
since it wasn't signed.
It was mounted on a square
piece of wood whose painted
patinated wear further hinted

at its early 1,900's provenance.
I recognized in the iron worker's
flowing coverall the Italian
movement hinting at Futurism.
He was a handsome iron smith
in a period attire with hands

holding a sledge hammer
and pincers resting
on a waist-high anvil.
Very polished industrial look.
His work apron had
that Boccioni dynamic look.
I anticipated riches. I wish!