Affluenza: A poem I wrote about my disgust with stuff.

Affluenza*

This goddamn
addiction to junk
cloggin' up my life...
kills my calm like a knife
Where once endless possibilities
Now exists a littered shell-
of receipts that tell
the story of need
an attempt to feed.
A slave- 'til the grave?
This shit owns me.
Will a day ever come
that I'll truly be free?
Shake the desire
to acquire
despite what I see?
It becomes satire,
That's making me sick
it matters not what,
it's an addiction, an affliction
bought without a thought.
Possess it, have it--It's mine, I OWN it!
Bitter midlife irony-
if only I'd known it,
way back when
I'd started consuming-
That feelings and highs
Derived from the score,
Have a downside- a backslide-
Don't cure the empty before.
Desperation taunts,
under assail
never realize (or supress) that it's
Self worth for sale
no matter your size
Get in line
"Buy your happiness here!"
Don't bother
It's confusion, an illusion
Feeding on fear.

-------------------------------~Mary Z. 2007----------------------------

*Affluenza is actually a book and PBS documentary about the more we acquire-- the more depressed we get, as a nation--hence... the more we aquire. Vicious cycle.
Buy Buy Buy... American as Apple Pie.