Everything Must Go

by Michael Brownstein

I wish I had a store
if I had a store
people would be free to enter at any hour
and take whatever they wanted
I’d be lying spreadeagled in the back
just inside the doorway
leading to the stockroom
where the sign says “Employees Only”
flat on the floor with my legs spread wide
and my eyes freshly painted with kohl
“Take what you want, motherfucker
I could care less,” I’d say
“Let’s see what you’re really like”

People would be free to rape me, for that matter
they’d be free to break my nose
in order to frustrate the International
Jewish Grand Cabal Plot
they’d be free to clean out the store
strip it of all merchandise, down
to the bare shelves
EVERYTHING MUST GO

See if I care
in the back with my kohl-painted eyes
secretly relieved because soon
this dump will be declared a total loss
and I can start life over as a poet
writing reasoned epistles
to shopkeepers of the world
urging them to unite and close up shop
give up their boring 2½ % profit margins
and slowly starve to death