Arlene Weiner
Dear Editor:
We’ve subscribed to your magazine
for a long time. We remember
your recommendations for canned tomatoes
and comparison of the nutritive value
of brands of store bread, when those
were a good chunk of our budget.
We’d never think of buying
a refrigerator or a car
without consulting your ratings.
But I want to suggest that you run a question
alongside every product listing
like the chyron of a newscast:
Do you really need this? Do you need
a gasoline-powered leaf blower,
a riding mower? Maybe if you used
a manual mower and a leaf rake
you wouldn’t need a Peloton.
Do you need a hundred-thirty-dollar yoga mat?
I’m pretty sure the Seven Sages didn’t schlep
a cushy mat with them on their travels.
Do you need a portable backyard pizza oven?
If you used it indoors, you might die
of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Dear Editor, we might all die
of carbon dioxide poisoning
the atmosphere, a smothering blanket. All:
the elephants, the whales, the corals, the redwoods,
our grandmothers, grandchildren, selves: burnt
in a fire in California, drowned
in a basement in New York City, starved
on a desiccated Hopi reservation, fallen
from a raft packed with refugees
from desertification, abandoned
on an exhausting journey from a hopeless place
where the land no longer sustains a population.
I admit my household has enough, and even too much,
and so I speak from a position of privilege.
Editor, I think you have good intentions and do good.
I just want to remind you: Consumption,
a wasting disease, is fatal.
Arlene Weiner, Vox Populi,January 2, 2024.