Magnetism
Magnetism
In a Home Depot parking lot
as the rules of social distancing
closed the adjacent
In-N-Out restaurant’s lobby
forcing the drive thru line
to be at my feet,
I look up to the car before me,
“Hey man,
you waiting to get something to eat?
“No,” I say. “I’m trying to buy a tree.”
The loudspeaker heard me,
“Please gather all you need
the store will be closing in 3.”
I looked at the time
and it was a quarter til 5,
but the sun still hadn’t set on my mind,
like when I realized
what I wanted to say
was the second I knew
you didn’t need anyone
that we were ready to be a thing,
but a frustrated woman won’t leave,
and it takes a mountain of faith
to make mole hill of change,
believe me
I still think
about you and I
and the time that
you could stretched two dimes
to the shape of my life,
fancy things weren’t your bag,
but it made me wonder
why you looked sad
when other women passed by
and you looked at what they had,
was it that when their man
was out of his cage
he was still leashed
as they led him
to where they wanted to be?
But you know that’s not satisfying,
like that Double-Double their buying,
even when you’re done
you’ll still be hungry,
just as the difference between
business and art
is that one is blind
while the other teaches you to see,
and it’s popular culture
that wants us to think
what we need is what they have,
but mimicry was the first sin
and paradise was lost
when the angel realized
that it wasn’t his reality
that he was living in,
if Heaven is due north
and the highway to Hell leads south,
then purgatory
must be the word to define
all this waiting,
you would think
that a public who listens
to a thousand different podcasts
on the subject of pop-psychology
would know that struggle is required
while Man Searches for Meaning,
but we live a life that is so comforting
that the entertainment we stream
is blood and guts,
an avenge for glory,
or the Tiger King;
if there is peace
then we cause conflict,
if there is struggle,
then we want ease,
if there is love,
then we prefer disinterest,
making things
with such polarity is puzzling,
it’s almost like
I have to meet my own needs
and then you might pay attention to me.