the other day I was shopping
in one of those giant incredibly brightly lit stores
you can apparently see from space
wheeling a massive empty cart
thinking this is a lot like thinking
why do I go to sleep
not having brushed my teeth and dream
of the giant failure
known as high school again
on the loudspeaker was a familiar song
by Quicksilver Messenger Service
there were no lyrics but I remember
it says we are all skyscrapers
under one blue rectangle
that never chose us
to be these sentinels
who imperceptibly sway
and watch people far below
like tiny devices no one controls
enter our various sunlit glass conversations
the world is old
and full as it will always be
of commerce and its hopeful nonprofit mitigations
future products from the Amazon
will cure ailments we have
and also ones not yet invented
looking down I saw my cart was full
of a few boxes of some cereal I do not recognize
four flashlights and a pink plastic water bottle
made of some kind of vegetable
that will eventually like me into the earth
harmlessly decompose
and then I passed an entire row of plastic flowers
and wanted to be the sort of person
who bought them all
but really I am a runway covered in grass
and all I truly love is sleep
from Sun BearFind it in the library
Copyright © 2014 Matthew Zapruder
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.