Objectified

The thing about Americans

are all the Things-

So many things,

more and more than ever before

buried in crap, cremated in mishaps.

We make, we take, we earn, we lose, 

we choose the right to have 

to hold-

We fight over 

and over, about

the need, the greed-

we have earned and lost,

another thing tossed. 

The sheer weight and

the wait, a cure and curated-

A new thing, and another thing, 

junk or slang, it is all the rage-

And all the rage, coveted, lust, we must have-

Unsatisfied, insatiable, hunger,

not food, not fast, 

lasts and lasts, plastic and preservative,

a classic, a novel-

ty, a storage bin, or unit, 

a closet, a garage, the tags still on, 

the deal forgotten, the steal justified, 

the hope, the saving for someday 

it might be needed

this thing, that forgotten thing, 

so buy another, smother our small space, 

lie to our face, stashed someplace,

in a cart, on a list, a deal just missed

how these things

clip our wings.

Wealth with strings.

Poverty sings.

Graces never saved faces

nor held our places

in heaven, 

as in hell 

we end up 

only us 

without all the surplus

it comes down to

just detritus and decomposition,

unaccomplished missions

like the unraveling 

of a flag or poem.

Artwork credit:  Bustling with work and activity, "The Wealth of the Nation" by Seymour Fogel is an interpretation of the theme of Social Security. Dated circa 1938 in Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Well-being

I choose not to spend pennies of thought
for the benefit of others opinions
who have made no personal investment
into the savings of and for the consideration of
a profitable shared account wherein there is only one
authorized signatory and not that of the opinionated.

Buddhist principles encourage us to
'Let go' of attachment but 'Hold on' to
your spirit, stick with it, lean in-
to the fall, don't hold your breath,
all obstacles are opportunities.

I clear some space and feel smaller.
I create conflict and make a mess.
I clean the slate, gently blowing off all
calcium deposits thin as chalk.

A moment ago, I slept,
Now I know why a funeral is called a-wake.

I have lost it and found a-way
back to the well-
being-whereby
change was inevitably tossed in.



Painting by Kazimir Malevich [in Public domain], 'Woman with pails' c. 1912.

FourFiveTwo: with scales

Greed is the creature with scales
that dwells in the darkest depths
slithering so easily around Humility
and longing for longer legs,

And with the sharpest tongue, cuts itself
and coils tight to stop the bleeding
that tension sutures and dies blue red faced
that fire would also feign

I too, have heard the low-lying rattle
and been prey to leers from low in the fallows
yet, always, a path broken
gives every thing away.




Artwork by Arthur Rackham [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The halve of it

It came down to haves and have nots

and the haves had great supply of have nots

while the have nots knew their supply of haves was limited by what they had not.

It was not so great they knew not what they had, the haves had this instead.

And so, the haves always have more than not, but would say

Of course, what they have is never enough until they have

All there is to have.

Not that the have nots needed more than they had. They did not,

having not had any more than before,

and all the have’s had much more of all of it, so the have nots thought,

they have left none of it to have for them, the have nots know not

what it is, the haves have to have it.

Needing more than they have always more than now,

while the have nots are needing to halve

more than their fair share.

It was never even, or even

fair, never

to compare

halves as a whole and

have nots

at all.

Image from/credit By The Lucy Show (eBay front back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.