Now you can listen to Mahler
On your smart phone
You can get tweets from Donald Trump
Any time in the day
Instead of traveling to Italy
To see the canals of Venice
You can see a simulacrum
In the desert of Las Vegas
What matter that these are all…
I almost said vulgar,
Which makes me sound
Like my grandmother
A small town Baptist
Who spent her life climbing
The social ladder to Presbyterian —
She bought Velveeta cheese product
And the space program’s alternative
To orange juice—
To her an intense, chemical orange
Signified new and improved
I also recall evenings
When she returned to
The black and white days
Of the Old West
With that king of clean hands
and longtime shill for General Electric,
The Great Communicator for whom
Our most important product was Progress