Back in the day
when i just graduated H.S.
i did not opt immediately for college
instead, i indulged in a bit of self-gratifying
luxury

i went to work
and bought a red corvette (albeit used)
but to my dismay i found myself
painfully self-conscious doubting my indulgence

sitting at a stop-light one day
i glanced over to a working-man
in a beat-up old pick-up truck
he, more than me deserved
a better ride
and to the opposite side
sat a mom with her brood of kids
in her clunker before such transport
was a ticket to something better

as it turned out
after a year in the working world
i exchanged my red corvette
for a year of college tuition

ironically i attended a school
run by Franciscan monks
whose vows included poverty
a message i took to heart

never again would i be comfortable
with such conspicuous consumption (Thorstein Veblen)

our economic system produces a surplus
of items wherein there is profit

but is sorely deficient otherwise