Product Placement

The old man swore that Lustre Creme Shampoo
(that stuff that comes in small blue plastic jars)
was perfect for the streaks and stains of rust
on my old family sailboat's tiller wheel.
A beauty product? Well, why not? Who knew?
I didn't hear the snickers of the tars
along the wharf. I scrubbed away the crust—
was shocked to see the pitting in the steel!

"It tore the finish off my mother's teapot,"
helpful friends informed me, afterward.
"It made our cistern leak and stripped the threads
inside the valves." Shampoo is not preferred
as cleanser. That is some abrasive we got:
how do people use it on their heads?

--for Poefusion's Friday 5, which was more like ten words this week.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside