Money Talks

[Wilcken]

......Annuit Coeptis
......"God has favored our undertaking."
.................- United States One Dollar Bill

In the off-gassing boom of plastic
we were molded into the middle class.
We were social security.

Anything new was neato or groovy
without a thought of where it
or anyone else came from;
without a campaign to promote
us to ourselves as the good,
the strong, the hard working
people of the heartland.

We knew.
And we knew you, too.
We read about you in Social Studies class.
Your crops and your minerals,
your imports and exports,
your systems of government. None like ours.
We were better off than you
or anyone else
in the entire world.
We knew better than to say so.

Our dinnerware, the chairs, our socks,
our Jello. Our lives. So gaily colored.

Every dollar spent, a prayer answered.
Every Sunday, an envelope in the basket.
Bingo was the name of a dog
and there was no lottery.

We began to listen
to our radios
with one ear plug.
Each of us cradling a phone,
our hope, your future
in our hands
as your next inventor.
An idea like super glue could fix anything
and yet we were the children
of planned obsolescence.
Each of us threw away more
than you will ever own.

: :

Now we know
how to look busy
as though we are monitored,
as though everyone were paying
attention, or could even afford the time.

(As though you are reading this.)

We steal each other's buzzwords
and we sell each other Systems Change.
We believe ideas have names
like "organic" and "local." We believe
these are new ideas. We argue
about birth control. We swipe
our debit cards. We buy
whatever you're selling.
We wear you like fashion.

In the Midwest we bank
on a nest egg of corn.
The weevil owns our seed.

Analyzing bubbles and bail outs, we think
we will stand united, we enjoy
the belief that we are all kinds
of awesome. We chat our tangled webs
around a kernel of panic.


.................

Note: minor changes made to second section since original posting.

[Antcliff]

Hi..
I'll be back, but just to note that I greatly like (indeed it could be the close?) the line "We are all kinds of awesome". Well I remember the over-use of that term in the US. ("Have you tasted these peas? They are awesome"). I always felt like a grump for thinking..they were good, but did quite merit awe). All kinds of awesome - that nicely captures a good deal of the "heartland" boosterism I knew.
Seth,
laughing fondly.

[Arian]

An enjoyably polemic, at times almost bitter, tone here, well sustained. If I have a complaint, and I don't really, it's that it's thematically a little cliched, as capitalism has been, is, and will be such an easy target. Still that's to carp: it's an imaginative and well-expressed piece, i nthe main, and I especially enjoyed

Every dollar spent, a prayer answered.

and

we are all kinds
of awesome.

I agree with Ant, here.

Some odd/clumsy bits though. For example - off-gassing stumped me, no idea what that's about. At first I thought of Ofgas (Uk gas regulator) then wondered if it's some kind of US stock exchange. Don't know. Not sure it works.

Any way, interesting piece, generally well executed.

cheers
peter

[Nash]

I think this is excellent Wilcken.

I've no idea what 'off-gassing' is either, but it put me in mind of the opening sequence of Bladerunner (y'know, the flames belching out of the oil refineries). This, unintentionally perhaps, nicely set up the world-weary cynicism of the piece.

I particularly like the line:

"An idea like super glue could fix anything"

There's something very pleasing about that.

I also like the double meaning of 'swipe' towards the end. At least, I think you intended a double meaning?

A very enjoyable piece.....could do with a better title though I reckon? Doesn't do it justice if you ask me.

Cheers,
Nash.

[k-j]

Just a quick contrary view on "all kinds of awesome". It is a stock phrase in itself these days which I hear quite often. "This, that or the other is all kinds of awesome". I guess I read it as sarcastic mimicry, and I can accept it that way, but seeing it in a poem isn't going to rock my world.

There are some nice bits here - the first three lines are very good, and I like the buzzwords / System Change lines. "The weevil owns our seed" is excellent!

However I'm not sold on the piece as a whole. It reads sort of like a Don DeLillo abridgment... the consumer society is such a big (easy) target that I think you really need to deploy a big poetic bazooka to make an impact. Lines like "we were better off than you / or anyone else / in the entire world" or "we buy / whatever you're selling" or "without a thought of where it / or anyone else came from" I think lack the starkness you're perhaps aiming for.

Was baffled by this: we believe ideas have names / like "organic" and "local". Don't they?

[Antcliff]

Hi again,
I see a few have called by. So, touching on something not touched on..

I do like this stanza:

Every dollar spent, a prayer answered.
Every Sunday, an envelope in the basket.
Bingo was the name of a dog
and there was no lottery.

This nicely conveys to me the sense of economic reliability and security. The reference to "Bingo" as only a dog name is a nice touch. One of the best lines in it for me.

Seth

[Wilcken]

Hey, cheers all for your thoughts and comments.

Some responses.

I see this as a first pass that I hope to make stronger with more specifics. I am looking for more than an easy political rant. I'm a little comforted to hear it holds some merit beyond merely that. I want some dark humor (and double meanings like swipe) but ultimately I would like it to have some gravity of self-recognition and not simply bitterness or cynicism or a rage against the machine.

Seth, you're pointing out what I felt to be the link with the title and epigraph, so I'm glad you liked it. Nash, my intent of the title was that the quote comes off of the dollar bill itself and also I tried to bring it back around at the end with the chatting. As for the awesome phrase -- and it is intended as mimicry, k-j, I'm getting some responses to the poem over here as well -- we'll see how it plays out as I work with this draft. I think it's certainly a pop phrase and perhaps a crutch, though I'm aiming for some added meaning about an odd pride in diversity (fraught with inner conflict imo) with the break after "all kinds." Probably too faint an impact. I also agree with you (k-j) about using phrases that are (or are near) cliche. This can come off as spin more than poetry, and I want to challenge myself on that, so I appreciate the comment. The belief in ideas like "organic" and "local" is coming up short in my mind too. Yes, they do have those names, my point being more that there is nothing new about them and people can tend to get all amped up about such things that many others (in the US and around the world) simply do. Glad you liked the weevil line (me too).

As for the off-gassing I was not sure if it would be a known phenomenon. The most immediate association most people have of this is New Car Smell. Offgassing and VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) refer to one of many factors that have been studied and are now being remedied in terms of indoor air quality issues in office buildings, factories and homes due to many plastic products such as paint, flooring products, etc. So proper ventilation, air filtering, natural interior design materials, etc. became a new retail business line. At any rate. I don't mean to go on about it and more importantly in the poem I'm neither trying to make a case for it or deny it as a reality, I simply thought it worked there in terms of meaning as a way of describing something that we know now but did not know then. I'm happy to hear a response like Nash's experience in terms of setting a certain tone.

I'll leave it at that for now. This poem is getting me all wound up.

You've helped me out here. Thanks again.

Wilcken

[Suzanne]

we enjoy
the belief that we are all kinds
of awesome.


Absolutely.
this is awesome.


lol.
Absolutely.

I enjoyed the emotional venting. Would enjoy hearing it live as well.
Suzanne- Robbinsdale

[Nash]

Nash, my intent of the title was that the quote comes off of the dollar bill itself

Just for reference, I was referring to the main title of "Money Talks" rather than the subtitle of the dollar bill quote (which is a very nice inclusion, by the way). I'm assuming that you don't have "Money Talks" on your dollar bills? That'd be brilliant though, wouldn't it?

[camus]

Of course "money doesn't talk, it swears"

But that's by the by.

[Wilcken]

Like a sailor, it does! Thanks for reading Camus.

Nash, yeah I think we're saying the same thing a little differently. I still think you could be right that a better title is going to show up. And oh my, the defacing of our money I've seen.

It's worth more as a canvas/art medium, that's for sure!

This one by Scott Campbell.




And Suzanne.

Ya don't say...


My grandma lived a block away from the water tower when I was growing up. Too much.

Actually...awesome.

Wilcken

[Suzanne]

Shoot. So did my mom. Dang.