Danger: Diatribe

image borrowed from bing

Danger: Diatribe

“Most sermons sound to me like commercials--

but I can’t make out whether God is the Sponsor

or the Product.”---Mignon McLaughlin.

The Super Bowl is soon upon us;

the entire planet awaits not only the event,

but more specifically, the commercials.

Sponsors spent millions per second,

work for months on the planning

of their minute masterpieces,

line up spokes-singers like

Stevie Wonder, Adele, 

Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift

to sell soft drinks, beer, cars, & insurance,

vie for profits, accolades, awards,

and controversy.

We can barely wait to witness

how many layers of lipstick Flo is wearing,

the absurd CGI adventures of a gecko,

witches in a broom factory,

and a sexy red Cadillac racing

through the streets of Monaco

or the mountain roads of Tibet,

as Madison Avenue prepares to instruct us

on fashion, morals, underwear, politics,

beverages, transportation, reverse mortgages,

ecology, fossil fuels, fast foods, erectile dysfunction,

diarrhea, and adult diapers.

We would like to believe that we

are not other-directed, that we

have a semblance of sales resistance,

but now that TV commercials

are shoved down our minds

in movie theaters, our prodigy

are paralyzed with name-brand quests,

and technology has successfully invaded

every niche, damp place, and wrinkle

of our lives, goddamn it, every day

we begin to look more like lemming

standing in mile-long lines

for the next available techno-cliff.

Glenn Buttkus

January 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets-Poetics

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