Walmart

Go to Walmart.  Pick out your shopping cart.  Take our your list.

Walk and walk, gathering your consumer items. 

They will not make you whole.

They will not transform you from your old self to your real, new self.

But,

In going to Walmart you will be walking in the path

Of an ancient tradition--of those who have gone to market.

In Carthage, in Athens, in Sparta, in Aix-en-Provence, in Madrid--

Your ancestors have gone to market

Carrying their bag, pushing their cart,

Moving among the fruits and vegetables,

Visiting the fishmonger, visiting the butcher,

Haggling with the grocer over the price of a cabbage. 

Redemption by reflection:

Go to Walmart, go to the market,

Act out the drama of the ancients.

--August 10, 2013