Horace Gregory
BROADWAY MCPHAIL APPL.cS FOR REEMPLOY–
MENT AT HIS OLD STAND
314
Do I have to prove I can sell anything?
You can see it in my eyes, the way I brush my hair,
even when I need a drink and can't stop talking.
Do I have to prove it with my Lwo hands and arms,
lifting five hundred pounds above my head,
until the house cheers and something fails,
the platform broken and the lights gone out,
crowds calling for police,
and a child crying for its mother down the aisles?
If
the park is beautiful and the day is warm,
I can sell the power in my eyes that makes life grow
where not even one blade of grass has grown before,
that is like sunlight breaking through
darkness in a small room,
that shines and pours and flows,
that is here forever when it is here
and is gone forever as sunlight drops to darkness
when it goes.
I could even teach millions how to sell,
how to own a car and pay the rent,
how to live as though you were living in the sky,
your children happy before they get too old.
If
you do it right, you can sell anything,
even your voice and what you think you hear,
even your face on billboards ten feet high,
your youth, your age and what you hate and love,
and it gets sold.
