You Click (poem)

You Click

You click, and the Creature of Perfection

Tells you what is thought of you

How the human form is picked and chosen

Via superimposition of a hope

You’ll buy and quiet down

A dim coating of category: What Things Are Put on Things

Billows in a breeze of ad-engines, churning

Fitting arrows to the bow, tipped with narrow misses

That tangle in your business, need extracted by a “skip this”

All you don’t—not really—

Aspire to. Dustings from a tree sticky-leaved, that pulls traffic from air

Shedding condiments and nail lacquer

Calories thin people devour…

Shinily, cleanly, while their chins shrink and their eyebrows rise

in sync with strong paint, defining; a second hairline

Take the time (it’s yours, use it all)

to fidget over how your lashes thrive at night

Shedding powder on caketops

What insane gorgeousness can be, how yummy it looks

Soft fingers glide on gutted fritters

spilling sauces, favored battered meats and pies

of many nations

“I make these all the time”

The undertone trundles a tint of smarm

This life not yours but hard to wish another

You win, you win

You lose, oh no!

You win, you win again

Accept the Change

(2023, Stephanie Foster)