Center Mall

popular verses 
offer love 
as curses
and the only
prescription
for the ails that
can't be consumed

that's where the fire
comes in
it contains the past with its 
teeth
and eats the future 
with its tongue

unless the tree is fake
and then the plastic
will be lit
and communicate permanence
in the face of that which
is always the opposite

on the square, circles
by the can, trash
in the bush, birds
on the hand, letters
in the voice, tremors
and a red-painted goat
also artificial