Was and Now Stickers

An orange sticker displayed
On the black turtleneck
says “Was and Now”, you see,
It’s a price-cut effect.
You might see it, perhaps,
When a weekly sale draws:
T’was more than it is
Now less than it was.

The old letters I keep
In my gloves-and-scarves drawer.
Embody a longing
For what we had before.
But time spent apart is
A price-slashing device.
Our love now reduced
To be clearance price.

Just last night I re-read
That last-received letter
(the one with the pirate
Ship drawn in the header.)
Just like the turtlenecks
In a secondhand store,
It’s less than it was,
Once worth a lot more.