Thursday, September 16, 2004

1441

TAKING A CORPORATE INVENTORY b/w HOME AND THE WARMTH THAT IT HAS

Truly one of mankind's greatest achievements
Is to learn how to count.

Sometimes I wake up feeling like Tom Brokaw.

But other times, I don't feel much like him.

Many interesting sounds have come out of
Boxes of cereal. Many colorful pictures
Have been coated onto these boxes.

Often, a home will have many boxes of cereal.
Residences with diverse insect populations
May prefer to transfer the breakfast foods
From their elaborate packaging to plastic containers
Which are themselves marketed ingeniously.

In many cases, a home will be adequately heated,
And the younger people living there
Will feel simultaneously the pressure to enjoy cereal
And the demand that they learn to count.

Children are born in a state of grace
And should not be forced to acquire knowledge.
Children are born in a state of error
And cannot be expected to acquire knowledge.

There is no way that infant of mine
Is going to be forced to work.

There is no knowledge you can force me to have.

You can't make me let go
Of my need to stay out of smithies.

I am going to oppose you
Every step you take
Says the ground.

I am going to sit here and not eat this cereal.

I'm hungry.