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Welcome to post feminism and the left is obsolete

There is no oppression. Just lean
in to the corporate machine, become
part of its vast personhood. You too
every one of you can be a millionaire
if you just try harder, gaze upward.

And you can win a lottery or two,
give birth to or father a perfect plastic
child who will become an even
richer millionaire with no teen
problems [or you have failed].

You’ll be good looking till 90;
anything bad can be replaced.
Luck’s a ripe fruit hanging high over
your head, so jump. Keep jumping.
Of course you can have it all:

that life snuffing pink slip, cancer
from chemicals some corporation
pissed into the water table, rotten
mortgage to steal what little you
saved before you started bagging

at Wal-marts, rape in the parking
lot, your family splintered under
the weight of failure, cheap nursing
home, urine soaked bed. Lean in,
lean in. Your grave is already dug.

Marge Piercy is the author of eighteen poetry books, most recently The Hunger Moon: New & Selected Poems, 1980–2010 (Knopf, 2011). Her most recent novel is Sex Wars (Harper Perennial, 2005) and she has just published her first collection of short stories, The Cost of Lunch, Etc. (PM Press, 2014).
2014, Volume 66, Issue 06 (November)
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