The unnamed narrator of the poem attends a local yard sale and watches an elderly patron. Rather than interacting, the speaker draws extensive conclusions about the stranger's past based purely on visual details like a faded tattoo. The text implies the speaker projects their own internal concerns regarding heartbreak and betrayal onto the man they are watching.

An elderly yard sale patron sporting a faded heart and dagger tattoo on his bony shoulder. He spends his morning picking up broken tools and putting them back down on the tables. According to the speaker's deductions, he was once an aggressive individual who suffered a profound romantic rejection that permanently damaged his pride.