Once I learned how sea creatures
died in prehistoric oceans
fell like snow upon the depths
and glaciated over millennia
their calcified bodies
forming limestone and marble
depending upon pressure and time.

I hold out no such hopes
for the drifts of detritus
blanketing the tables
at Portland’s biggest garage sale:
dusty blister packs of Spocks
from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,
empty one-use Coke bottles,
Armageddon on VHS,
customizable scratching posts,
pristine volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books.

All the wonders of America’s search
for satisfaction through consumption,
sifted and sorted, tagged and tabled,
will someday settle into landfills
and be tucked into bed
under bulldozed blankets.

Is there time enough and pressure sufficient
to make plastic limestone and vinyl marble
from the husks and shells of our shed refuse?
Who will mine the strata we bequeath?

Everything must go.
Priced to sell.
No reasonable offer refused.

David M. Frye
April 18, 2009
Portland, Ore.