Sweet Dreams

Her room smells like new shoes

Or new jeans;

Fresh rubber, fresh fabric. Fake-

Clean in a factory way: grease-thick hands, sweat, and crumpled damp clothes;

30s America, Gatsby’s unlucky counterpart;

The man whose pockets rip and tear,

Whose face is thick in lines like crops

Heavy in ash,

Coloured mellow by the weather,

Worn; unworn, interrupted slumber

The consumer sleeps-

A peaceful night-

A peaceful acquired life-

Purposeful ignorance.