yesterday’s mail and how I resisted temptation  

a thin and slick magazine
addressed to my daughter
who doesn’t live here anymore
who stays once-in-awhile for a few days
who stores most of her stuff here in her old room
and in the storage outbuilding in the back yard
it’s from the humane society usa all about animals
daughter had a friend who worked for them
that friend told me a portion of one cent
from every dollar donated helped animals
the rest for lobbying corporate salaries
slick magazines filled with propaganda
meant to squeeze empathetic money out of me

a cute little package of postcards from the sierra club
wrapped in a mini-manilla envelope
who writes cards anymore
but it’s like a present so i have to open it
and now i have to use the cards
i write today’s poem inside a photo
of an unnamed location’s landscape
full of bright yellow-petaled-fireball-orange-centered
flowers as far as the eye can see into the horizon
of green-bluish trees into the far-off pastel-pink-tinted sky
5 pictures meant to elicit dreams of me seeing
and saving the places and the cute bear or feline cubs
with my hard-earned gift of dough they know i will give

then there’s a flimsy 11”x 14” flyer
from consumer reports
just what i need a subscription to something that’ll tell me
what products are the best of all the products made to screw me
i wonder why they don’t know i’m going to use every cent
i get my hands on to protect my habitat against the side effects of aging
getting old is a very expensive endeavor