Working at
Michael's® Arts and
Crafts I look
at customers coming
thru
lines. Lights
above and
credit cards change
hands, one by
one by
one. The
signatures
numbers all
as fast as you can go
they stand in line
as fast as you can
go, they stand in line
waiting
to make
their purchase
rolling eyes and -
You punch in the
codes, scan the
bars, slide the
cards, and wait for
approval.
II
Don't worry
you're approved
your card has made it
once
again
and stars sing out in the
night. Bar codes
along sibilant dreams
reach inwardly to find
factories in China
churning out
plastic floral items for
59 cents and
upon a porch
they sit
presiding over
the silences
between arguments
and the baseball games
of your children. There are some
newlyweds or almost so
coming thru my line
and I stand there as
one among you
fresh out of the mental hospital
you constructed
one summer
for me to
study
the ways of heaven and
cloud.
