Habits
Ben Howard
How arrogantly they carry us
into the pharmacy, the market,
the bank, even the darkened bedroom,
as though we were the wafers on
their tray, the pot of steaming tea,
the empty cups. And we accede
most days, so innocent are we
of their insidious intent,
their will to make us inmates of
ourselves, incarcerate our longings,
reduce our acts to replicas,
our words to parodies, our smiles
to imitations. What happiness
to send those sponsors on their way:
to taste, at last, the tangerine,
the bowl of cereal set before us,
the berries' ripe intelligence,
the cup of coffee not yet cold.
Ben Howard's fifth poetry collection Dark Pool: Poems 1994-2000 was published by Salmon Publishing in 2002. His work appears recently in The Sewanee Review and Shenandoah.
