Denim jeans have jilted labour, now jostle with the silks
Jowl by cheek with jewels in jeopardy of severed roots
Can this giant generate one genuine earthed thing?
Fluffy finery is false, fresh flowers are real
In the face of fashion, funky fun laughs
And forgetful fancy flies before fragrant flavoured spice.
Computer, camera, carpets, clothes … covet the unneeded.
Yet commerce cannot overcome creation –
Covert, constant, colours all endeavour.
Drenched in deepening desperation they slip;
Dessicated by driving delight they stagger;
Made dumb and deaf by duty they stand
In this moving, milling, mauling crowded place.
People immersed in money emerge emaciated, needs unmet
For music, books, the movies may engage the mind – or dull it.
Things bent to evil, blighted, braided in among
The brilliant beauty of burnished blush of stipple dark:
Burning blade, bondage-breaker, bring freedom.
Thea McKenzie, 2007
