Oniomania - Peter Pereira
____________
Not so much the desire
for owning things
as the inability to choose
between hunter or emerald
green, to buy
just roses, when there are birds
of paradise, dahlias,
delphinium, and baby’s breath.
At center an emptiness
large as a half-off sale table.
What could be so wrong
with a little indulgence?
To wander the aisles of fresh
new good things knowing
any of them could be hers?
With a closet full of shoes
unworn back home,
she’s looking for love
but it’s not for sale —
so she grabs three of
the next best thing.
_____
This poem appears in Peter's newest book, What's Written on the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2007). Peter is a physician in Seattle, and was a founding member of Floating Brigde Press. His previous book, Saying the World, was also out of Copper Canyon.
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