More

Shiny magazine covers and
building size billboards all scream out their prophecies
American consumer religion sanctifies
the message
We all need more
we need more directions, more faith, more prayers
higher cheekbones, bigger houses, smaller asses
All of the things money can buy
and we can buy it all
Faith in a book, health in a drink, a bottle of Love
body by Bobby
things, things that money can buy
are the things we are made of
the essence of you or I.
More, more, more…

And a lifetime I’ve spent in priding myself
on being above
this greedy accumulating philosophy
content, enough, happily poor.

But I want to finish my Gratitude Journal
and have another glass or two of rum with friends
Hold my as yet unconceived grandchild in wrinkled arms
Run a marathon, sail my ship to Worlds’ End
Visit Antartica and learn to speak Chinese

How humbling to learn as I face this part of me
That I am not so different from any western “You”
The trappings of the greed, these things I may eschew
But the philosophy has encultured every pore
Like every edacious American as I face this end

inevitable mortality

I find all I want is more….