Gresham's Law

Gresham’s Law


This may well explain the tyranny
of kitsch. Take a snowglobe,

for example. Shake it
then set it down as expected

within a poem…There.
Inside this handful

of theatre, notice the quiet
heckle of weather,

the landscape soon covered
by a white blanket

of the ersatz. Observe
the standard red cottage

trapped within the storm
within the globe

within the poem
and note the conventional

family sitting down
at the dinner

conflict, the father remorselessly
a drunk, mother a weeper,

the daughter a victim
of you-name-it.

But here in this highly visible
century about to be buried

by yet another layer of the mediocre,
glance down that average avenue

toward the usual town square
where beneath the customary oaks

and the methodical streetlights
you may just see

a three-handed boy
with a glass revolver

and one blue shoe
about to commit an exceptional crime.