MERCHANT CULTURE
What’s the going rate for a poem these days?
—JM
I’ll trade you a drop of snow
for a lyrical poem,
a parking lot
for a river stone,
a soldier’s heart
for a kettle of gold,
the justice card
for the nine of swords,
a Persian word
for an off-chord;
a thousand tears,
a thousand tomes
and a drop of snow
for a lyrical poem.
—from Rattle #40, Summer 2013
__________
Wendy Videlock: “A friend recently scolded me for never having written a manifesto. ‘Here’s my manifesto,’ I said: ‘Everybody’s got their own egg to hatch.’” (web)
