• Mood: busy

Poem: "The Nature of Advertising"

This poem came out of the January 8, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from iamnotgod and Shirley Barrette. It also fills the "wise / learned person" square in my 8-7-18 card for the Fairy Tales Bingo fest.


"The Nature of Advertising"


The backwards "R"
in Toys "Я" Us
is not a mistake
but looks like one.

The first impression is
"That was a mistake"
and the second is
"That was stupid."

Some things are
mistakes because
they are accidental errors,
and some because they are
deliberate but unwise and
later lead to problems.

One is too much
a programmer and
a mathematician to make
what looks like a mistake
to attract attention.

It is the nature
of advertising
to turn mistakes
into money.