Toast for Brekkie

Vice

upon watching Miami Vice
the shallowness of that existence gets to you
under your skin
it's a challenge to remain detached
from a well done film
but somewhere inside it struck me
watching kids salvage broken styrofoam littering the streets of Montevideo
that all of commerce is like sledding as a kid
or like a water balloon fight
all that preparation
for mere seconds of fun
surely it's worth it or we wouldn't keep doing it
Right?
the moment, the pinnacle, the apex, the coup de grace
is the purchase
it's the money shot
everything else is either before or after
everything else is either prophecy or aftermath
come hither or morning after
it's so brief as to be nonexistent
and yet the world revolves around it
as if it were a god
they call it instant gratification
but then shouldn't it be gratifying?
you can't even fathom what goes into its preparation
the logistics of the petroleum alone boggle the mind
and make the world turn
the petrol to make the plastic
the endless shipping to and fro
and the fossils fuels the shipping consumes
the manufacture of "food products"
like High Fructose Corn Syrup
or Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
the recipe, the history, the preservatives
the focus groups, the taste tests
the marketing budgets and expense accounts
the advertising dollars and tv spots
sponsorships and billboards and product placement and spokesmodels
the shipping and distribution
the wholesale, resale, discount and retail
all the middlemen
the shelf real estate
the lighting the cooling the refrigeration the store location the local ads
the price
the ever present price
everything has a price
all to separate you from your earning potential
all to take back that part of yourself you sold to make a buck
twice over
all to reclaim the piece of the pie you bought into and spent your time earning
all for that moment
that petty exchange
so small so insignificant
that it barely registers in your frantic life
but added up with everyone else
so large so compelling so fundamental
money makes the world go round, you know
and you walk away
one product richer
consume it unceremoniously
quickly, brutishly
it bypasses your natural nutritive pathways
empty calories for your empty soul
signed, sealed, delivered
you grow fatter
they grow richer
we grow richer
more decadent
more wasteful
more independent
more isolated
alone
separated
solitary
and the waste
the dross
the container that held the nothingness you bought
joins the billions of tons of its brethren
in the deep pit of sold dreams
the landfill of civilization