What They Put There Instead

The text came in with just a photo.

weird right? No punctuation, no name.

I had to look twice. The curve I know

at the end of Main, the bank the same,

but the hardware store was gone. Replaced

by something with a logo and tinted glass

and a font you'd see in any place.

I stared at it like I was trying to pass

a test. From the back seats of the school bus

you could read that sign—hand-lettered, each

character a different size. No fuss

designed into it. Someone's actual reach

across a board in someone's actual hand.

Gone now.

Someone typed: yeah.