Greg Farnum - two poems


Farmer Jack Savings Time 3/06/98 17:53

89˘ PLUS DEPOSIT
Deconstruct that, you mother.
A computer's artful rendition
of the face of Meg Ryan:
lovely, luminous skin and eyes of
blue that stare out from the cover of
a magazine. I move up.
A celebration of 75 years of Time;
inside, American technology and capitalism
are the engines that drive the world.
It's an exciting place in there -
dizzying heights…no limits…spanning space and
time. I flip backwards as the woman in
front of me counts her change…
to the famous shot of the Spanish loyalist
at the moment when the bullet found him
-- "Does that man with the cart
have ten items or less?" she asks me,
old clerk eyes hard and suspicious.
"Is he still there?"
I turn. There he is. No longer young,
dressed in that look of worries
that buzz about your head like insects,
gradually attaining their own sort of
group consciousness, ten items -
maybe nine - carefully arranged,
brow furrowed, eyes asking
What now?
"He's right there," and
"Yes."
Why did she ask me?
Funny, he was hidden behind my small frame.
"…turned the gun on himself
as police closed in" the radio tells me
back in the car. It was near Hartford
Connecticut, near where Pete lives.
Stress related leave of absence they say.
This one sought out the executives
rather than killing his co-workers.
Four dead
five, counting the gunman
if I heard it right.
The governor arrived to help with the healing,
grief counselors parachuting in.
Watch carefully before braving the headlights
of the winter rain darkened five
(on this stretch, six) lanes.
There. I'm on the road. Headed home.
That's what we need, I say to my audience of SUVs,
more stress, more guns,
more professors.

What Makes Today's Home So Alluring?



	The kitchen shouts to me in (largely) capital letters SEE-THRU CUP
LEVEL BLACK & DECKER Coffeematic OFF ON OVEN LIGHT PANEL LIGHT SURFACE
LO OFF HI MED LO OFF HI MED LO OFF HI MED LO OFF HI MED merging with the
thousands of messages experts purport to count that we are inundated
with each day each week each month each year each childhood Garlic Salt
Salt say the two glass salt shakers from Olga's Kitchen restaurant
franchise chain on the left of the stove (which of course has its own
commercials) and Pepper Cayenne Pepper say the two pepper shakers on the
right of the (Lady Kenmore) stove and TIMER CLOCK STOP TIME CLEAN COOK
TIME BROIL MTV Getting New Look? asks the advertising magazine in my
office magazines (more than one) about advertising that are filled with
ads COOK TIME BROIL BAKE SET global village wired as in barb until the
seemingly insubstantial messages congeal like molecules of iron flocking
together like a wall full of scurrying rats like I heard in Viet Nam in
that bunker on that hill what was its name while I tried to sleep while
we poured industrial technology on to human flesh in an absurdly
one-sided mauling night vision radar weapons systems yellow victims
everywhere but still they persisted so when we were stationed on that
hill we had to sleep underground for protection from the little Luddites
and the messages glide and bump into an evil alchemist's simulacrum of
ancient papyri or a Cosmodemonic Telegraph with the letters all caps and
run togetHERMILWAUKEE'SBESTSAYSTHEBEERI'MDRINKINGORAT
LEASTMILWAUKEE'SCHEAPESTFORIMUSTNEEDSCONSERVEMYMONEYASTHEREISSOLITTLELEFTAFTERFO
RCEDCONSUMPTIONOFALLTHESEMESSAGESCOMPANYTOWNCORVEEFORCEDLABORONANDONITGOESNORESP
ITEHAVEANOTHERSWIGTHATWORKSSORTOFANDLIGHTACIGARETTETHOUGHIDON'TNOWSMOKEMANYOFWHA
TTHECAPITALISTHEROCALLEDTHEIDEALPRODUCTMAKE'EMFORAPENNYSELL'EMFORABUCKTHEY'VEGOT
GREATBRANDLOYALTYANDTHEY'READDICTIVEUNFAIRWOULDSAYHISRELATIVESANDBENEFICIARIESHE
WASAGOODFAMILYVALUESMANLADYKENMORELADYSCHICKLADYDIYOUMUSTBEAHAPPYWOMANITOLDMYWIF
ETONIGHTAFTERTHEKIDSCLEANEDOURWESTINGHOUSEFRIDGEYOU'VEGOTACLEANREFRIGERATORYESSH
ESAIDWITHAWRYSMILE
								I AM.

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