It's All Meaningless (Book of Ecclesiastes)

Lord, I need you to intercede because we're planting seeds
for the next generation of women to reap a harvest greed.

Young women get fake tans and wear large shades-
a masquerade, botox faces on parade,
while underneath their minds begin to fade,
but who am I to judge, I must confess,
I dress in the best and buy things in excess,
and obsess over movie stars and their fast,
expensive, foreign cars.

I look at celebrity gossip in the checkout aisle
and all the while, there are thousands
of innocent people dying from genocide,
but nationwide women continue to be dissatisfied,
their bodies are preoccupied with looking like the hottest celebrity,
or should I say America's top priority. And as we obsess over
whose dating whom, Africans are dying of HIV and road-side bombs
create amputees.

People use the excuse that they can't relate to high birth rates
and apartheid. We don't know how to donate
and educate because we continue to watch TV
and read magazines until our minds disintegrate.

And it doesn't end there, no one has a dollar to spare
because we spend all our money on the things that we wear,
but your Word says, As goods increase,
so do those who consume, until we become immune
to the debt we owe to the department store,
but we keep collecting more
just to keep up with the latest trend,
but it doesn't matter how much you spend,
it's all a chasing after the wind.

We must break this routine
because the Bible clearly states in Ecclesiastes 5:15,
"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb
and naked will he leave,"
so don't be deceived, stop collecting stuff,
whoever loves money never has money enough.

So here's the only thing that makes sense,
fear God and keep his commandments.
So I ask you Lord, to please
change our hearts with mine being the first,
for it is I who am the worst of these.

A Bad First Date

Inspired by Mark Cox’s “Like a Simile”

Sat down like bones are made of glass
looked like a child at the dentist’s office
glanced around the room like watching a sex scene

He entered the coffeehouse like an undiscovered tomb
and said hello like he was meeting my mother.

We drank coffee like survivors
and talked like ex-lovers
legs touched under the table like crossed wires
he removed his like a band-aid

Searched for words like gold
spent them all quickly like a child's allowance
He played with his phone like a ball of yarn
while I looked in my coffee like a fortune teller

We got up and left like at a bad movie
walked to our cars like criminals

Said goodbye like we were moving heavy furniture
then I sat in my car like a marathon runner
in need of a breath and a second of rest

Writing Exercise #1

inspired by Kevin Young's "Negative"

Wake to find everything fat
what was slim, all the vice
versa - slim anorexic models, fat.

GAP commercials starring a fat actress
dancing in fat fit jeans. Slim wallets,
fat donations. Well-fed

Africa children. All celebrities
wear tiny shades. Drive small
fuel-efficient cars, small portions

on menus eaten by healthy children
who order a quarter-pound of fruit.
Campbell's Skinny Soup and
Fat Pockets.

Young females admiring obese
women, laughing at skinny jokes.
Friends get together to chew
the lean. It's not over

till the gaunt lady sings.
Here's the skinny or maybe
the fat. There is a distinction
and we're all obsessed
with that.