Monday, December 3, 2012

poem of the day 12.03.12


art collector

my wife and i
are in an art gallery in soho

i don’t like soho
because there are always too many people
walking the streets

celebrities and tourists

buying things that no one can afford

i don’t believe this great recession exists
when i am in soho

maybe i come to soho too much

but my wife wants
to see this exhibit in the gallery

it’s on brian froud

he draws elves and faeries
did design work for jim henson movies

this is a pop art gallery
and froud is interesting enough

he’s hanging up there with seuss
and bob kane drawings of batman

charles schultz panels of snoopy
and good ol’ charlie brown

the prices are outrageous for this stuff
thousands upon thousands of dollars

i don’t know a single person
who can afford them

but that doesn’t stop the gallery clerk
from coming over to us
trying to show us various paintings and the like

she must be nuts or desperate

this woman must have one hell
of a sense of humor, i think

i shake my head and we make small talk
but i just want to get away from her

call it the philistine in me
but people like her make me uneasy

they make me feel less than i am

my wife senses my discomfort

we keep trying to move away from this woman
but the more we look at the art work
the more she keeps coming at us

with questions and comments
with suggestions and anecdotes

everywhere we go she seems to be

she asks me if i collect
rather what i collect

baseball cards, comics, and debt
i want to tell her

picassos and van goghs by the dozen

you must have me confused with somebody else
i think to say

because my haircut is free
and my boots only cost forty-dollars

but instead i tell her nothing

i stand there and sweat
play the role of assuming art collector

let her think what she wants to think about me

as i look at black and white prints of the grinch
the last of the frouds
watch the city move
outside the windows of the gallery

the streets of soho
fill with more and more people

carrying bags emblazoned
with expensive names
and very little taste.

                                    

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