Money Is Not Monogamous
A poor man cannot make use of himself.
He is demoralized through excessive beat exertion.
He cannot take orders even for the good of himself
Usually quite to the contrary.
He surrenders for despair although believes surrounding conditions.
He produces fiery revolution in unconscious rebellion.
He believes anything that happens
as misfortune of others.
Quickening as rain on highways, he plunges into chance
faith, duty or conscience culminating legends
of eros, beauty, will & condition
upon distance or parent organization.
He swims with the tide, taking care
he has undressed for it & surveyed its relation
to majority use, freely contributing to its content & current form,
little saving resources toward relentless tides
of time, shallow depths & eventual discharge.
He recognizes none of these fears, not their predicted fact.
From Supplication: Selected Poems of John Wieners, edited by Joshua Beckman, CAConrad, and Robert Dewhurst © 2015 John Wieners Literary Trust, Raymond Foye, Administrator. Reprinted with the permission of The John Wieners Literary Trust.
John Wieners
John Wieners lived on the periphery of several movements during his lifetime—the Beats, the Black Mountain School, the New York School, the San Francisco Renaissance—and was granted cult status in the poetry community.