property must have been an early invention
collecting a polished stone
or bartering furs
for the perfect ear of corn
or wheelbarrow with a pneumatic tire
& the timesaver's craft of theft
People were property
entire families of polished stone or corn
value rising or falling
as they faded in & out of prime
vassals with possessions of their own
& small rooms to appoint
not steady as Stradivari
by decade collecting esteem
as if it were property
eclipsing the virtuosi who held it
surviving the currencies
in which it was traded
nor mounds of,engineered objects,
input jacks empty,
battery compartments ajar
their Jackson Pollock obsolescence
far from glossy catalog births
& popularity peak
or somewhere between
like a Stratocaster
or this Larrivee D-03
mahogany & rosewood
now facing the auction block
like soy or a diva's faded blouse
or feathers
multicolored specks
floating in sewage
& delicate insect carapaces
metamorphoses
unappraised
& there is the lowly poem
below all of them,
mere mutterers toy,
teetering on oblivion
from its tendering-day
about to be forgotten
with last November's rain
D-03 D diminished
kiss
dead mother's voice
sun
September 2011