Now that it’s officially Black Friday – the day when people go mad consuming stuff they don’t need, this seemed like an entirely appropriate poem to shame us all.

Poem for the Working Man and the Upper Mobile Yuppie
–A.D. Winans
Some people guard their lives
Like a eunuch guards
The Harem door
Like a stock broker with
A hot tip
Like a banker who knows
That today’s dollar will only
Be worth one-fourth what
It is today
In less time than it takes
To die
Better to linger over
A cup of coffee
Like a skilled lover with
No need for bragging rights
Remember that every newsman
On every street corner in America
That every meat packer and fisherman
Knows more about life than
Your average poet
The blind man rattling
An empty tin cup
Makes more noise than
A yuppie gunning
His BMW
On his way
to the graveyard