everyone wanted that
little man swinging
a mallet on
button-down cotton
symbol of money
and conformity, belonging
to the great
american dream, success
on our chest
was everything in
yuppie popped collar
middle school hallways
of my youth
before time passing
and truth telling
consumerism, that word
of excess and
education, realization that
things are just
things
Tag: Consumerism
Of Love and Things
black friday
pop up ads
vanity fair
folded perfume
possess, covet
objects of pride
I’m better than you
insistence that
moneyed hierarchy
is the answer
will solve
all woes
sorry, not sorry
to say, this
accumulating life
is wasting time
on things (and
you’ve heard this
before), stuff won’t
make you happy
but instead, yes
love, it is
so simple
also free
Anonymous
no one knows who
i am, no photos
of me on a
screen, where i might
look wealthy or important
wearing a suit, standing
serious, ready to buy
or sell something, or
convince you that i
am indeed successful,
i walk, don’t drive
a tesla, or anything,
and therefore you might
not know me and
how i sometimes just
stare at trees and
how that is just
fine, good enough to
breathe and watch you
in wonder, trying so
hard to be somebody
Pontiac
my daughter already talks about the
car she wants an Audi, new, shiny
that her friends will admire like
her iPhone with apps that take
wrinkles out of faces in photos
I tell her about my maroon
dented station wagon, Pontiac
1986 Michigan-made to barely
last past puberty
I parked it with pride
my piece of remembering
that life is unreliable
always ready to
start then stop
blind to history my daughter
will never know the struggle of
driving a car that quit, gave up
for her they don’t exist
like rotary phones
like an indigenous name
turned into painted steel
Walking Into Walgreens
they usually know
what they want
the gum or
shiny People Magazine
others walk the
aisles, an activity
to pass the
time in fluorescent
lights, examine lipsticks
red and pink,
most days there
is a man
sometimes a woman
who sits out
front, any help?
it is both
question and statement
they are usually
ignored except for
those few who
drop quarters in
the old coffee
cup, thank you
they say, and
customers smile before
looking for cuticle
scissors or deodorant
to smell better
this is all
normal at Walgreens
in San Francisco
maybe other places
Daniel W. Polk 