he’s getting down to work this morning
but daydreaming about
Pet Rocks
how some guy made
a million bucks
selling rocks
in cardboard boxes
with a little straw
and an owner’s manual inside
how they sold out
and how some people refused
to buy them and just picked up
rocks where they were
and put them in boxes
and called them pet rocks
and others sold knockoffs
that had little googly eyes
hot glued to them and those
sold well too
but the point was
everyone had a pet rock
and called them pet rocks
and cared for their pet rocks
and they were all just rocks
but more than one person
got rich anyway
he’s thinking about Pet Rocks
while folding the T-shirts
on his kitchen table
packing them in boxes
shipping them out
never even bothering to read
the slogans of the minute
that he silkscreened on the shirts
last night after midnight
Dark Matter 
August 27th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
there is a certain mentality that goes with the get rich quick schemes…..you captured that here
August 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Thanks…I’ve always been fascinated with Pet Rocks; had one as a kid I got from somewhere (I didn’t send away for it or pay for it, but SOMEONE did)…the whole notion of how people were caught up in something that silly and how others made money off of it KILLS me, and I use it often as a cautionary tale whenever anyone equates popularity with quality.