{"id":468,"date":"2023-12-09T00:16:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T00:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.illinoisstate.edu\/euphemism\/19-1\/?page_id=468"},"modified":"2023-12-09T00:16:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T00:16:25","slug":"mortal-wealth","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/poetry\/mortal-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Mortal Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n
Jesse Popp<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Affluence arrives copied and pasted<\/p>\n

in suits and their ties, not quite adjacent<\/p>\n

to our modest lives. Exhibiting patience<\/p>\n

to stifle a sigh, she to me, \u201cwatch the wasted?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot my speed\u201d -spoke I – \u201cnot in the faintest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth:<\/p>\n

Attendees of fortune and greater renown,<\/p>\n

playboys, sportifs soon, founders of towns,<\/p>\n

with too large a portion but too little to endow,<\/p>\n

in dress so masculine, I can\u2019t be around;<\/p>\n

fear of comparison became thinking aloud:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cfour hundred rich men<\/p>\n

in trousers<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

pining to spend tens<\/p>\n

of thousands<\/p>\n

at the event<\/p>\n

wine, majesty, Mexico<\/p>\n

numbered sticks and trench coats<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

I do not belong<\/p>\n

of what they spend<\/p>\n

within such a throng<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t make a cent<\/p>\n

laborious dawn<\/p>\n

among rich men<\/p>\n

I do not belong\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To observe such a venue is not to embrace it,<\/p>\n

nor is it to argue that one must erase it.<\/p>\n

I must bid it adieu in order to face it,<\/p>\n

and find somewhere new to be not complacent;<\/p>\n

though rich men\u2019ll sue to keep us behind paces.<\/p>\n

The truth:<\/p>\n

Any difference they make pales in relation<\/p>\n

to your money they\u2019ll take on their won vacation.<\/p>\n

Forget being saved – a paradise destination;<\/p>\n

to reach God they\u2019ll pay to make heaven their nation,<\/p>\n

preach humility in vain and explicit ostentation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cfive hundred rich men<\/p>\n

in trousers<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

are spending hundreds<\/p>\n

of thousands<\/p>\n

at this event<\/p>\n

capital, status, Pisa, and Rome<\/p>\n

auction bids and sport coats<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

I do not belong<\/p>\n

of what they spend<\/p>\n

within such a throng<\/p>\n

I shan\u2019t make a cent<\/p>\n

laborious dawn<\/p>\n

among opulence<\/p>\n

I do not belong\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spoken again to make clear my departure,<\/p>\n

a perk of a head led to my marching harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cNay,\u201d they pled, \u201cwhat\u2019s with thy disorder?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, \u201c I said, \u201cto be concise and hence shorter-<\/p>\n

I fear these men.\u201d They grinned and then chortled.<\/p>\n

The truth:<\/p>\n

I cannot stand to make believe I am a man again.<\/p>\n

A suit and tie are merely playthings used to help pretend<\/p>\n

that I\u2019m not the way I really am. But now, instead,<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll fade to gray, wait, and stay within displacement.<\/p>\n

Here it’s safe to simply lay until I have to face death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

six hundred rich men<\/p>\n

are cowards<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

they\u2019ve spent hundreds<\/p>\n

of thousands<\/p>\n

at this event<\/p>\n

delusion, fantasy, Kokomo<\/p>\n

American dreamers’ hearts broke<\/p>\n

under the tent<\/p>\n

I do not belong<\/p>\n

of what they spent<\/p>\n

within such a throng<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t make a cent<\/p>\n

or a dime off these dongs<\/p>\n

among rich men<\/p>\n

I do not belong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Popp Affluence arrives copied and pasted in suits and their ties, not quite adjacent to our modest lives. Exhibiting patience to stifle a sigh, she to me, \u201cwatch the wasted?\u201d \u201cNot my speed\u201d -spoke I – \u201cnot in the faintest.\u201d The truth: Attendees of fortune and greater renown, playboys, sportifs soon, founders of towns, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mortal Wealth”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"parent":11,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-468","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/468\/revisions\/469"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/euphemism.illinoisstate.edu\/19-1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}