Gold Mountain

Is there a better figure
For the weird of human want?
Not all cultures lust for gold

But enough. Gold lust’s not all
Arbitrary and useless
But enough. And a mountain

Of the stuff! Think of the shine,
The coffers, the temple roofs,
The filigreed jewelry,

So, so much. You like your stuff—
Capitalists, Communists, priests,
Saints, painters—can’t get enough.

The ability to want
Based on a shared agreement,
Agreement the guarantor

Of value, is why gold wins
The beauty contest. The world
Has been remade, more than once,

By an obsession with gold,
By you who obsess as you’re told,
With something else, if not gold.