Bounty:
Our Credo
Insurance
is beautiful, especially the forms.
We love the blank spaces where the numbers go
and we sign our names. We are deeply attached
to George Foreman and his grill; nothing quite
moves us the way something smoldering
in the great outdoors of our backyard does.
The pleasure of molded plastic lawn furniture
is an especial joy, the way it makes our bodies
feel wanted by something not ourselves. Let it be known
we are not ironists. We believe in Wall-Mart
and mourn the late Victor Borge. We live close
to nature but not too, if you know what we mean.
We believe there are undiscovered colors
living in seclusion in the rainbow. We love
bounty and fierce competition, but also consider
scarcity not inherently evil. You hear that music
vibrating the car next to yours at the stoplight?
Those are our children enjoying self-expression.
Our dream is to one day visit the Mall of America
and maybe live there. Some people think that’s crass,
but just remember, crass rhymes with grass and who’s
to deny the dignity of verse in these enlightened times.
We kiss you many times over and wish you well.
See you in the future. If you depart before us,
please leave a light on.
Orgy
Someone
said there was nothing to do
and of course there wasn’t,
which signaled the moment
for us to remove our clothes
and hurl ourselves on someone else
who was hurling themselves on another.
In this
way we passed the time,
for that was what we chiefly
had on our hands till they
were filled with someone’s bosom
or another’s probing question
about what to do now.
Copyright © 2001 Thomas Wooten
