Sunflower Futures
love poems and other early lyrics

Sunflower Futures

Listen to this.
The United States Commodities Exchange
has just opened trade
in sunflower futures.

I intend to invest heavily, corner
the market, become the Jay Gould, the magnate,
the undisputed arbiter
of sunflower futures.

I want to see Kansas covered in sunflowers.
I want the earth to curve away
to horizons of pure, simple, wind-bellied,
head-bobbing, black-rooted, sky-radiant yellow
flowers with eyes so deep that when I look
there I can see infinity.

I will store my seed in elevators
larger than anything Kansas has ever seen.
I will press such oil out of this one enterprise
the economy will run on indefinitely.
No one will have to sell their second-hand
Vegas for lack of gas. No freeways
will be closed, except perhaps
in Kansas to grow more sunflowers.

But the best part is
right now I want to merge
my sunflower futures with yours
and see what happens.