so much depends — 4/11/07

so much depends on them

the crumpled toyotas and buicks
bearing the kohl’s and tj maxx masses
of women who work for median pay
just to hold families together
and/or pay for saturday nights

so much depends on

the workaday pickups and vans
that shuffle the turnpikes a car length at a time
manned by the men who wear carhartts for function
just to hold families together
and/or pay for saturday nights
to earn their stripes in
the army
of the ignored

you depend on them

you who sneer at large eyeglasses and broad bellies
who swear to never walk the walmart aisles
who do not understand the necessity of shopping
at the only place you can afford any sort of glasses
the only place left in the half-rural towns
you’re buying into
the towns you’re buying out from under them
who put up the mansions on their grandfathers’ lands
who cheerfully toss your cash at the work of their hands
who do not understand how little of your money
goes into those hands
who would sneer at the smell of the dirt on those hands
who would never tolerate it on your own

so much depends

on the world where they live
which you see and sneer at
from the seats of your bluetoothed cars
from the seats of your business class flights
from the seats at the indie rock show
from the floor where you mock the old time rock and roll
that keeps the flame burning for some folks’ saturday nights
from the seats where you look up from professional screens
and imagine the pleasure of loving rap for its image
from the seats where it’s easy to pretend
you could rough it like them
slumming for a week or so

from the seats at the poetry slam
where you manage to muster a pitiable shake of the head
at a poem about class and indifference

so much depends
on not admitting a divide exists
or denying that the divide’s near impossible to bridge
without leaving some piece of you behind

so much depends
on the crumpled toyotas
the not quite late model enough hondas and saturns
the cars that struggle to pass you to get there on time
because there’s no flextime in a retail backroom
because there’s no daycare in a call center’s perks
because a car isn’t a way of life but a workhorse
because a paint job’s a luxury and a dent is a shrug

so much depends on
you not seeing yourself as remotely
a part of that mass on the highway

there’s a hell in every payment
you make on your life
and you’re not the one
who burns in it