this week a man at Costco commented

as I ripped a U-turn with my big cart

to avoid collision with him and another

you know how to drive, he said

I take my time in cavernous big shop spaces

but I’m focused on getting out too

what I need vs what wants to come along

this is the dilemma

one of many

in the land of plenty

a place I am grateful to inhabit

but wary of its wiles and beckonings too

the pull of acquisition stirs

good price oh nice might need so pretty—

this day I didn’t succumb

my U-turn was not to circle back

return some object I didn’t come to buy

to a shelf in an aisle stacked strategically

with merch for the uncontrolled

half a life, maybe more, to comprehend

the deft nature of marketing allure

to acquire discipline

the value of resistance to getting more

than I came for

I don’t mean to mislead

to feign immunity to gathering stuff

I’m a junk store treasure forager

a button and stone collector

a loose string puller

a fallen feather rescuer

an adopter of artworks by unknowns

a reacher for electronics and shiny odds

I regularly check those cardboard boxes left

on boulevards with invitations that read

FREE propped against them

the hints of who is this wanderer

how I see, think, have been

have come to be

what amazes, comforts, pleases

all around exist these extensions of me

After my wake, there can be an auction

pieces of my collected assemblage

redistributed

arranged according to others’ penchants

proceeds to benefit the curious future~