In the forests, we took a pecuniary interest,

reserved for them a hallowed place 
in our memory. Everything must go.

We found loopholes in intractable vows,
we went round and round

like unclaimed luggage on a carrousel.
Plain speech became a pastoral:

the sound of one human voice 
speaking to another replaced

by many voices all talking at once. 
Yea, though we drove though the valley

of the shadow, the airbrushed faces
on the billboards, they smiled upon us,

and we feared no evil but the evil inside.
It was difficult to distinguish between

the things we loved and said we loved. 
Outside was a world of hurt,

but we had brilliant toys and headphones 
to cancel the noise. We saw with belated clarity

that we were enrolled in a crash course, 
and that everything was on the final exam.

It came as quite a shock. How gone? 
Real gone. All our gift cards unredeemed.