Babbitt in a Bottle
Location
The Ladies will sit and rumor,
Sit and nibble pound cake
Until they lay in the ground.
The speaker will thunder a thousand melodramas
From a thousand podiums
Until his headstone thunders some
“I told you so!”
At soccer moms jogging by.
One will stop and roll her eyes,
Recalling twirling in puffy yellow dresses
For her mom’s stuffy friends.
Their condescending whispers puffed a cigarette mist
Clouding the umpteenth speaker’s impassioned diatribe
As they sipped coffee from beans
Picked by the former slaves
Of King Tut’s great uncle
And ground smooth by African shamans
Under the watchful eye of Lawrence of Arabia.
Or so the A&P Label read.