Dom The Shopkeeper

By Stella Phipps

“I’m 10p short”
Says Little Saul.
He’s staring at the milk.

“That’s okay;
You give next time”
Dom’s smile is soft as silk.

Dom likes to make his customers
Feel better than before.
He hands out words of selflessness
As if it was the law.

You see, Saul is just a child,
But his parents sent him out,
Because the fruit bowl is depleting
And the bread bin’s running stout.

Dom lets these pennies go unnoticed
But Saul’s parents notice him
Because their fridge is no longer empty
And their children not too slim.

Yet it’s not like Dom is wealthy,
He’s got problems of his own – 
Like the kid whose born from hatred,
Tongue of dirt and eyes of stone.

When he saw Dom for the first time,
Stacking Heinz beans on a shelf,
He had never once seen someone
One shade darker than himself.
And the loathing just kept coming,
Ruthless waves against the shore.
When poor Dom thought he’d done his worse
The kid kept on with more.

And his shop had gotten looted 
And his wife was very sad
And yet, Dom still says that this shop
Is the best thing that he’s had.

Dom is not just any shopkeeper,
Rather, a hero and a friend.
He is a pillar holding great things up
Until the very end.

---

Written Word ‘Hand’ poems