30 in 30 2016: #21 Shoplifting for better ideas

Shoplifting for better ideas

To a rebellious youth with no money and even less pocket change,
retail store’s with “no chase” policies were like a warm hug.

The places where the best ideas are kept,
are right under the noses of the people that pieced them together.
These don’t fit in my hands well.
They are awkward to hold and beautiful to look at,
but work much better
if you know how they were put together.

So I waste my time with the bad ideas
that don’t really look like they’ll go very far unless
I really carry them.
That sorta clever foresight never
stopped me from making mistakes though.

The trick is to find the best place you to hide
when you take what you want before you lift it from the shelf.
If you can take it and keep it on yourself long enough,
you should be able to walk out
like it was yours the whole time.

The bad ideas are the easiest ones to lift.
No one ever thought to keep them safe from being stolen.
They would collect dust on the shelves,
if they weren’t always such shiny targets
in the obscured corners of the store.

Sometimes you end up
making eye contact you didn’t want to
while you’re carrying your bad idea.
Arguing with yourself whether it’s cause
they know you have it
or if you’re just putting off the air of the guilty.

Like big bright warning signs
telling you not to,
you see the bad idea from a mile away.
By the time you’ve steered toward
your straight shot to the exit,
it’s already too late to put the bad idea back on the shelf
for the next sticky fingered idea stealer to regret.