Face it! Two essential appetites drive
Us all. Just two stark fundamental needs:
Food and sex. Back at dawn, we had to strive
All day—hunting, gathering—just to feed.
Then, to satisfy that insistent itch,
We learned to woo (or worse), create more maws
And genitals to feed and soothe. The glitch?
That first surplus, and violence (bred pre-law).
Weary of work, one brutish ancestor
Fashioned a club—you know what happened next!
Another became an entrepreneur—
Bartered his surplus—birthed our twisted, vexed
History’s passion for accessories—
Deadly plague! The car—a Masereti!
Ferragamo shoes! Fundamental needs
Morph to voracious envy, want, and greed.
Rude red wine won’t do—pop for fine champagne
(And, of a certain year). We fly first class,
Covet suites at swank hotels, and disdain
Simple sustenance as hopelessly crass.
From the start, some visionary folks carved
Flutes to charm away the foul wounds of need—
Or graced cave walls with art to sustain starved
Flesh through magic—there! Prey now guaranteed!
Regretfully, our simple appetites
Flipped, gave birth to those vain accessories
That serve to drive us mad (and yield delights)—
Enhancing bleak sustenance with glories.
Can we regress—consumed by work, find salve?
The cost? We’d lose the stone foundation plinth
That holds the Parthenon, nor would we have
Cartoons, poetry, or Beethoven’s Ninth.
(5/22/10)