46. “The Tour”

A poem from AS WELL AS CAN BE EXPECTED: Selected poems, including Things need not be this way, by Richard L. Rose

The Tour

A delegation from the Land of Too Much
visited the Land of Too Little.
Aromas served the meal
while Echoes played the tune
and a ghostly chorus sang.
Shadows turned down the beds
and next day in half-light
Escorts like gravel underfoot
displayed the factories
where whirr and whip and wince
combined to make a soft, denatured thing
that pleased no one, eased no pain,
and made gains only in empty reaches
of abstractions and projections
past all living and knowing.
Several delegates complained
the tour allowed no shopping time.