I have been pricing these things out:
going to the five and dime,
searching for names
searching for pieces of worth
and the only ones I can find
are the ones by dead people
do you have to be dead to be thought of as good?
and so I’m seeing these books
and they’re all expensive
(for someone who’s been dead)
even at the five and dime
and so I go to the counter
and ask for them for something by someone new
and they give me that blank stare
(that you usually get
when you ask someone what seems to them
like an impossible question,
when to you it seems
obvious and apparent)
and they tell you they have none
and you ask them how much it would cost
to get something different, something new
and they give you that blank stare again
and they say “that stuff doesn’t sell”
well, of course not,
when you never put it on the market,
you think
and you shrug your shoulders
looking at the books by dead people
that you don’t want to buy
as you walk away
