Educational idolatry and other misguided Priorities

[Lori Polachek]

Facts About Packaging

Pacing up and down

the dairy aisle, searching

for Weight Watchers Yogurt-

I had all but given up,

despite the 5 pounds I gained

last week in Vermont.

Packaging is shorthand-

 “fyi” has been joined

by  “lol”, and “KFC”,

and the almighty “M”-

do you need eight more letters,

or a Happy Meal with that?

We are advised against judging

a book by its cover, with self righteous

warning labels stamped on with a wink-

It’s been over thirty years since my uprising

against educational idolatry. “A” grades glittered

like a Golden Calf, coveted by wayward

worshippers as a true sign of learning

I would force feed 20 or thirty

Yiddish words into my brain,

for successful regurgitation

on weekly tests-

 

I gained high marks, but lost the words-

Brain atrophy was an educational

hazard, in learners unable to disable

the valve to their thinking.

 

Determined to stem the ravages

of academic bulimia, I began

a movement to occupy

my mind

 

I sat for Mrs. Grumberg’s Yiddish dicte

defiantly unprepared, slinging Yiddish

letters together in phonetic harmony-

Sometimes you have to take a stand.

I finally found the yogurt, -

with its reassuring Green banner

“New Look Same Great Taste!”

Who made the decision to change the look?

Who did they have to convince? I mean 

there are real fucking problems in the world

like childhood obesity.

Innocent lives threatened daily

by narcissistic grown ups

and their malignant

projections- 

Who persuaded Weight Watchers

to spend- How much money was it?-

on a redesign!?-  

[Lori Polachek]

I was unable to post the poem with its proper line breaks- you can view the poem in its original format, on my newly created blog- http://lp-poetry.blogspot.com/2012/08/facts-about-packaging.html

Please feel free to post a comment or feedback. Thanks.