Dimestore Shoes Poet Dramatic Verse

I Met Carl Marx In a Bookstore

I met Carl Marx in a bookstore
hanging around in the classics, waiting
some casual reader's mind to seduce  
his weaver, painter, plowhorse, produce
a strange dream of worker equality
the value of labor, everyman matters, 
An oxcart teeters, ideas splatter
into his subtile, beguiling reasoning
I read on, in a dream, this worker paradise
A place where each of our labors have worth
If I study and become a doctor of medicine
I am the same as the welder and the shopkeeper
I felt the burdens of the laborer upon me
I saw his vision of classlessness preside
I wanted to buy that book! but it's silly
I am a capitalist, shamelessly bourgeois..

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Denis Joe February 5, 2009 at 6:05 AM Though I think that the narrative betrays a lack of understanding of 'Das kapital' (not all labour has the same value) the poem itself is brilliant. It reminds me a bit of Ginsberg's poem about meeting whitman in a supermaket. What you draw out in this poem is great: a vision; as if the most inconsequetial thing has a greater meaning. It takes a well-trained mind to do that and a skillfull writer to make it into a poem (I'm not suggesting that you actually met the great man), just the idea!

February 4, 2009 at 8:10 AM Interesting thoughts for the reader to reflect on. Creative perspective. Best wishes with your writing. Have a nice day. Karen