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Poetry

Monetized Happiness

Keith Gaboury

Overlooking unhoused hearts
in a tent encampment, 
an East Oakland billboard
commands my eyes: 
YOU CAN’T BUY HAPPINESS. 
 
Alright, I get it. Then again,
can vocal chords vocalize
negotiable happiness?
 
Can we negotiate 
a pay-what-you-can happiness
or better yet
a we-need-to-give-a-fuck happiness.
 
I know I’m Oakland lucky. 
I have green
presidents in my pocket
and a lock 
on my 38th Ave. door.
 
When I drop my skin-wrapped 
blood onto a $500 mattress
under a $50 blanket
in a square studio
that costs $55 every night,
 
I dream about burning that billboard 
down. A neurological fire 
will warm my housed blood cells 
 
in this zip code
branded a vegetable desert.
Can I buy a sunny 10-cent carrot 
 
or a joyful $1.50 radish bunch
in my neighborhood 
heavy with melanin.
 
USPS doesn’t bother to plant
a dark blue mailbox around here,
doesn’t care if I mail a 60-cent
envelope of happiness. 
 
I wake up and hear
gentrification seeks to swipe away 
that tent encampment
 
for a grocery utopia 
where health and happiness
will be available for purchase
at the checkout counter. 

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Keith Mark Gaboury earned a M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. He has full-length poetry collections forthcoming from Kelsay Books and Falkenberg Press. Keith is also the president of the Berkeley Branch of the California Writers Club. Learn more at keithmgaboury.com.

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  • Home
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    • Volume Five, Summer 2024
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    • History
  • Contact Us
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