Shopping trip

I am trying to buy a blanket
but it is impossible, blankets
are too useful to be attainable
in these times

Politicians of all parties demand
that we lug ourselves out of town
to snap up the latest lamp
in the shape of a vase
then go home and somehow try
to keep warm beneath scraps
of fluff our grandparents
left lying around in cupboards

My grim heresy mutters there's nothing wrong
with products having a practical purpose
and the need for warmth is entirely defensible
even in an age of global terrorism

But we do not gather together
to look for blankets. Maybe
everyone else is happy
with their vase lamps. Maybe I
am the only one who remembers