Luddite scratches
a numerical itch
which pretty much
does confirm
assuming we don’t live
past hundred six,
unless current inflation
continues to shoot
through the roof,
you have accumulated
enough assets
to see us through.
Most importantly
that includes
not such complex
calculations:
ever since triple
(plus flu) vaxxed
allowed returning
masked and distanced
to shop at fave Trader Joe’s
where can buy superb organic
bananas always hang on hooks
at home to preserve
for 25 cents apiece
instead of regulars
for 19 — rather than
grateful for whatever
might be able to scrounge
online quite willing
to take what they deliver
at whatever hellish price
as well as their iffy
sorta certification
absolutely nada
GMO or pesticides.
When multiply
our $avings
extended to milk/
berries/melons
then to other foods
in fridge, though
probably way too late
to boost my personal years
it should be great for grand/kids’ health.
Gerard Sarnat has been nominated for the pending 2022 Science Fiction Poetry Association Dwarf Star Award, won San Francisco Poetry’s 2020 Contest, the Poetry in the Arts First Place Award plus the Dorfman Prize, and has been nominated for handfuls of 2021 and previous Pushcarts plus Best of the Net Awards. Gerry is widely published including in 2022 Awakenings Review, 2022 Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County Celebration, 2022 Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology, HitchLit Review, Lowestoft, Washington Square/NYU Review, The Deronda Review, Jewish Writing Project, Hong Kong Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Buddhist Poetry Review, Gargoyle, Main Street Rag, New Delta Review, Arkansas Review, Hamilton-Stone Review, Northampton Review, New Haven Poetry Institute, Texas Review, Vonnegut Journal, Brooklyn Review, San Francisco Magazine, Monterey Poetry Review, The Los Angeles Review, and The New York Times as well as by Slippery Rock, Northwestern, Pomona, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, University of British Columbia and University of Chicago presses. He is a Harvard College and Medical School-trained physician who’s built and staffed clinics for the marginalized as well as a Stanford professor and healthcare CEO. Currently he is devoting energy/ resources to deal with climate justice, and serves on Climate Action Now’s board. Gerry’s been married since 1969 with progeny consisting of four collections (Homeless Chronicles: From Abraham To Burning Man, Disputes, 17s, Melting the Ice King) plus three kids/ six grandsons — and is looking forward to potential future granddaughters.