A Little Consideration: A Selection from Tony Hoagland’s Application for Release from the Dream (2015)

The rain washed some pollution out of the air,
and for a while, workmen with their shovels and their picks

stood in dry spots underneath the trees,
resting and smoking while the gutters dripped.

Just before the elections, and the roads are being paved
because the governor wants us to remember him
in the dark of the voting booth.

In Hollywood this year I hear the girls are wearing
four-and-five-inch heels,
driving the feminists crazy—some say in
subservience to the patriarchal gaze,

some say in a renaissance of ancient foot-binding traditions.
The problem is that they feel beautiful—and how
do you disagree with that?

I am thinking about this while on hold with the
phone company, waiting
to talk to the person stationed like a punching bag
at the gate of that major corporation.

Their power is to add a mysterious charge to my
bill; my power
is to shout at their least powerful employee.

Maybe you’re a very nice person, but you also
want to be thanked for it.
Maybe you’ve memorized the names of your
employer’s kids, because

you think that you
would like a raise—

So what? Just pay your bills on time, and spread a
little flattery around.
Just set the mousetrap in the basement with a dab
of peanut butter—the extra crunchy kind.

Big news flash: That’s all that people really want
these days.
That’s as much as we aspire to. We don’t need to
be pampered, or lectured, or adored.

We’re not goddamn babies anymore.
We just want to be manipulated with a little
fucking consideration.

—Tony Hoagland, “A Little Consideration,” Application for Release from the Dream (2015)