BUY NOTHING DAY 11/28/03

A BUYING POEM
(Inspired by nothing)

by Radomir Luza
 

When I was young,

My mother bought me a GI Joe doll,

But I soon sold it for 99 cents at a garage sale.

I hated how it never stood straight.

My father gave me a Charles Dickens book called “David Copperfield”

But I put that on my shelf and never read it because it was boring.

My sister bought me a gerbil that I liked for about three months

Before I hated to see it caged and secretly let it go one cold November night.

My best friend gave me a plastic blow-up doll when

We were in college together

Because I didn’t have a girlfriend and wasn’t getting any sex,

But I put that sister in an old closet until it shrank and my

Mother threw it away.

My wife gave me a famous cologne for Christmas one year,

But it sits above the sink unused because I hate the way it smells.

Yesterday I bought myself a Yankees jacket at Modell's that I loved at the store, but hated when I tried it on at home.

I don’t buy nothin’ but food no more because it’s all bullshit.

They can have their department stores and Wal-Marts,

Me, I learn more from my enemies than my friends,

More from a handful of God’s pure air than a Chicago slaughterhouse.

"A Buying Poem " © 2003 Radomir Luza

Photo © 2003 Rochelle Ratner

All rights reserved.