The Shoppers Revolution

From the beginning
the great consumer has been
the workhorse of our culture

where there have always been things to buy
like nails and metal axes, linen, matched china sets,
feather fans with real peacock, silver spoons
and textiles threaded with real gold.

My things end up in museum collections
behind glass partitions in small New England towns,
in probate inventories, and in archives of colonial newspapers.

But in all this dust you will never understand
how the shops and stores were the site of my
roaming imagination.

It is no good trying to interpret me now.
I can't listen. Any doubts could only unravel your
delicate balance of credit
a shelter of sorts.

I only say what is important: the movement towards.
Always something that is calling to buy.

What else rolls on but progress through purchase?
Trust in the forward movement
it is what sustains the revolution.