Buy and Sell
Gold trappings
to keep the congress
of our masks in place –
one only puts so much
wealth into heartbreak
as one can afford to lose.
Behind the treasure,
little dark slits
mark the uselessness
of looking, and noticing.
Like indigenous puppets,
whose bare eye sockets
exorcise misfortune,
so we place our bets
on hollow icons,
and lock our chests
to spare the nothing we own.
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 