02 March 2013

Side Streets (poem)

Sidewalk department store window displays
How are you doing?  Everything's fine
Brides with starry eyes and visions of bliss
In their polyester permanent press wedding dresses
Promise to love and to cherish
And to live happily everafter

Actors in the daily picture show
With their prewritten stereotyped roles
Images projected onto a blank screen
Following the status quo scripts they play
Cardboard cutout faceless manikens
Given life that's taken away

Figures in a mural on a city wall
With storefront smiles for everyone to see
Toys to be picked up and played with
Then done with and put away
Electric switches flipped on and off
Circuits played with until blowing a fuse

Mass assembly factory production lines
Interchangeable parts
Fast food joints and throwaway containers
On a plastic earth under a blue jean sky
Miscellaneous subjects thrown together
Fitting into the mold just right

And someone yells out, "Hey, how are you?"
And the other calls back "Fine!"
Then goes home to see the next act

No comments: