Present Tense IV 

Commerce. Production. Consumption. Who makes? Who takes? 

It's useless to give up cashmere shawls, gold armatures, SUVs, furs
and silks to achieve cross-cultural pollination or transcendence. 

Since we've ceased to celebrate works-in-progress or cutting-edge sound bites, we photo commodities to provide a permanent record of desire in the grass and under the elms. 

Turkey on the chairlift. 

Rooster in the coop. 

Testimony is a cryptic relic deformed by the violence of authority. 

We recall the limited palette of ashen tones when we drove through Eastern Europe. Billboards, even in Estonia, summoned up fascinations with dieting, alcoholism and psychotherapy. 

Should we have eaten those salads of language? 

Should we have risked teased hairstyles and gained weight?

Should we have giggled amidst severest woe?

Mimicry, idolatry, fanaticism, greed. Oh, fervid tangled brushwork, what can we do to hold you at bay?

I am old. I am old. The good day grows cold.