there will be oil in poetry

the next big gold mine is selling inessential oils
useless oils you buy and display just to prove you
have the money to waste on these meaningless oils
I don’t even know what they’ll be oils of nextways
they’ll have to be totally useless oils, you see
even peppermint oil can make cookies for the kids
even dinosaur oil can make a car go to the beach
we’ll need totally meaningless oils to sell away
in our newest multi-leveled marketing fantasias
in our tinfoil-coated pyramid hat scheme dreams
if its worth anything other than bragging rights
no one puts hard-earned down for useful, anymore
the next big gold mine is selling inessential oils
to folks whose friendships we’ve transactionalized
to strangers on the internet pleading for meaning
for the kind of meaning that can only come from
proving they can afford that proven meaningless
the next big gold mine is selling inessential oils
for the same reason there was almost no money in
mining for gold and all the cash in the goldrush
was made selling sex picks shovels and whiskeys
to idiots who were never going to find a nugget
not a flake, not a fleck, not a spot nor speck
but they fell for the big sales pitches anyway
the next big gold mine is selling inessential oils
but count me out, think I’d rather be just as broke
more honestly, think instead that I’ll keep writing