Waste of Culture Waste of State

by Kathleen Hellen

 
And don’t your eyes seek out the things you want?
–Hannibal Lector

 
A foreplay of signs designs passion in the branding
“Got Milk.” Food tastes better cars run faster women look thin.
PVC and cardboard despite the power strips. Think

Global. Like in rio de janeiro, art’s in landfills.
In the manner of big companies, think
big. Drink
patronage with cereal. Delirium with paint
Cut off ears for tax breaks.
You get used to the smell.

“I’d walk a mile for a camel,” the lung exploding, says,
Limping into deserts of campaigns
that have changed you
into featureless cities resembling:
A mouth: Eat Mor. A face across wallscape
The manufactured feeling seduces. Woo
governors of sinecures. Private fortunes

It always stars with something true.
Then it isn’t. Where’s the beef?

Food tastes better cars run faster women look thin.
I can make you famous in a week.

Kathleen Hellen is a poet and the author of The Girl Who Loved Mothra (Finishing Line Press, 2010). Awards include the 2012 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Prize in poetry, with her collection Umberto’s Night forthcoming. Her work has appeared recently in Barnwood International Poetry Mag; Cimarron Review; The Evansville Review; Harpur Palate; Pedestal; Poemeleon; Poetry Northwest; among others; and was featured on WYPR’s The Signal.