Slogans

sometimes I feel we are only speaking in slogans
and then I see the different coloured slogans
speaking to each other across the fences of the world

disarranging the lilacs and
looking a little folkloric, at least at the beginning
then leaving us out of the conversation entirely.

and the slogans have grown legs and arms and heads and hands
and are walking among us crisp in their new suits,
their dotted swiss dresses they are waving us on
while we start feeling slippery, losing our labels

so that our mothers don't recognize us
a dish of jello here, a pot of watery jam
a shadow, a creek bed dried

and the slogans have taken over, side by side and
linking arms
they are running everything

the slogans run the bank
the shoe store
the bar and grill

the gas station
the monoply board
the seventh ward

the silo and the grain
and there are slogans now for rain
for windy weather for the trains when they come on time

for snowfall and the picturesque antics of the children, codified

and they are always on tv! See.
and oh God I am tired of slogans.

I am so tired of slogans.

mary angela douglas 18 january 2017