Welcome to post feminism and the left is obsolete

Issue in Archives [PDF] | Article in Archives [PDF]

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).