In the PartyStore/PierOne/Target/Kohls parking lot
find a desert willow among the shopping carts,
walk around it sunwise repeating:
I am the avant-garde, I am the avant-garde, I am the avant-garde
repeating:
DIY, DIY, DIY
Imagine a chart of median family incomes as big as the parking lot—
use it to determine where to abandon your car.
I default, I default, I default
Your mind is a blood blister rising on your thumb, a ladybug.
Among these shopping carts, you fortress. Among plastic bags you affirm:
Lo! the light from desert trees does not speak in numbers, costs us nothing.
Here, as in a butterfly garden, everyone crawls before flight.
Copyright © 2013 by Susan Briante. Used with permission of the author.