From Dec. 25 2011

In the Dollar Store they are going to build, the knock-off GI Joes
Have deformed faces die-stamped upon the clay in China
Their arms move too awkwardly in their sockets to be useful
And their combat uniforms are melted with the skin they wear
Their stubby fingers cannot find the trigger or the gunbarrel
They have been given, their heads are smothered in cellophane

The combs you can buy for a dollar cannot be run
Through the blonde hair painted upon their soft skulls
The GI Joe knock-offs you can buy at the Dollar Store
Are often in one piece except for the arms
That can be broken off at will, except for the head
Without expression that can be unscrewed or pried off
From the rest of the vulcanized body

And the doll is best played with in back-lots
Or dirt craters without greenery without grass
And the children who play with these knock-offs
Are better dirty also, better without clean clothes,
Their hair mussed, snot running down their noses

And best the GI Joe you can get at the Dollar Store
Can take a beating on the dirt track
Can take the heat of the day and stay whole

The Dollar Store also has videos of fishermen
Said to have been broadcast on the major networks
Although at three in the morning not on prime-time
And though the fishermen cast their lines into a stream
Out west in Wyoming or elsewhere
These fishermen catch no fish on the pirated DVD transfer
Nor can they be fishermen of souls
And their DVD is nonrefundable
Their fly-rods gripped in sleeveless
Muscular arms that do not help them
Catch the fish—they are a bad dream

And another thing in the Dollar Store
You can get are these porcelain creations
Of pink madchens in flower-bells
Designed by mad ex-communicants
The excitement of Hummel figurines
Blazing in their long [sequestered] eyes [incarcerated?]
Nearby piles of clay pots and pocket calculators