LADIES' DAY

Those are the neon girls,
Bright flicker white, not a shadow between them,
Cool chicks without a temperature, they bleed
Soda pop sighs and have pink plastic hearts on a key chain.
Fashion is their name.

And there by the bargain bin
Come powdered ladies in kludgy coats,
Their shopping trolleys stacked with toilet rolls
And ballooning bags of potato chips.
Consumer is their name.

She pauses at the crossing lights,
Her walking frame invisible to the mobile phones
That rush by with captured brains, she wonders
How her failing heart will make it to the other side.
Forgotten is her name.

Thor, 2007