FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

It seems now, however rare
and however useful,
that certain words cost

a lot more than you
ever imagined. 

And to be sure: a good very many 

you received in
exchange were extremely
beautiful—luscious as pure 

cream, juicy as heavy
redolent fruit, and cut

precise as rare
gems, and inlaid in intricate,
particular patterns;

but precious
as they were, fatiguing to find
and even more formidable

to use (so secretly, 

so palpably inopportune—

that even post-hoc impressions 

of the ulterior labor of their 

assembly seemed
tacitly to serve
as appreciable features)

can you still say 

that it was worth it—when
not one, let alone 

the garlanded strands of hundreds
you've been hawking

alone out here
for years now, has ever 

earned you one red
cent, or turned a single 

head—blond
again?