​Published in The Mountain Gazette 85, March/April 2002

Acceptably Intrusive

Cassi Clark

 

Absolute, Coors and Evian,

made from pure spring 

glacial water I peed in.

Commercials showing

mountains 400 miles from 

the polluting industrial brewery.

SUV's helicoptered to an oasis 

butte above a city to sell

cars that end up in ditches

off our mountain highways.

 

In school I learn to write

in case there are not enough 

ads to fill magazine pages. Torn

between teaching and living,

professors discuss ethics of Nike

studying inner-city kids at play.

 

Grocery shopping we walk

on Crest and Dexatrim

and Lucerne, ads in linoleum,

aimed at head-hung people 

bowing to advertisers

and following orders: Be

like Mike, buy our products.

 

Protestors cry out against evil

Empires with unfair labor practices

-- and drink name-brand coffee

made perfectly, while wearing

Columbia vests and camping

in North Face tents that kill

grass on a campus few people

in Indonesia care about.