Once in my life have I entered the convenience store on the corner of Main Street and Broadway.

I bought a bottle of soda
So when I looked down to the counter
No one might question my purchase.

A week later I drove past the convenience store on the corner of Main Street and Broadway
For probably the hundredth time
And I cried.

Because a corner store is just a corner store when you pass it every day
But the day your world is taken away it’s not a corner store anymore
It is the price you paid when there was nothing else for sale
The eyes you averted when there was only one pair worth seeing
It is the day when he realized we weren’t worth saving
you weren’t worth saving
there was nothing left worth saving.

When you hear the piano plink out G - D - G it’s not a one-four-one melody or any of the million times you heard it
And you smiled
It is the tune our hands flew across the keys to play without hesitation
Who needs the score when you’ve played the same song for years and carried the rhythm in every step
Until the song wasn’t stuck in his head
It was the soundtrack to the coming-of-age story you loved when nothing else was on television.
A film you gave two stars.

They told you
If you love something, let it go
And you did so you know that
Day after day
The more you give away
The harder you learn that
Nothing gold can stay
That no receipt can redeem
The light in your eyes
The smile on your lips
Or the weight on your chest that you laid down
When you found that
Nothing gold can stay.