Cluttered stalls line the market streets

And merchants lift up their offerings with both hands

Knowing they have the public in their palms.

What used to be shunned as a practice of the unrefined –

Now exalted as the height of morality and health.

All those hours spent in brightly lit bulk warehouses

Are now disregarded, a thing of the past.

Now, a trip to the farmer’s market is the right thing to do

A responsibility, even an obligation.

Growers of fine produce are placed on pedestals –

Although those pedestals may just be fruit crates.

Still, a re-usable bag in one hand

And a smart phone with a grocery list app in another

The newly educated public

Parades down the sidewalk feeling mighty divine.

Gallons of milk are now replaced by dainty glass bottles

With fun pictures of happy cows from the farm next door.

Smiling shopper spear slices of organically-grown goodies

Dipped in honey straight from the comb.

The bees were treated in a very humane manner, the buyer is informed.

The shopper slurps the sample like a lollipop, reaching for another.

And once more, a sucker is sold.

These vegetables aren’t your ordinary fare;

No, each one was hand-picked by your friend Paulo, or Daisy –

Friends whose signatures are proudly splayed across the packaging.

No question here about the absolute freshness of your food.

No, those fraying brown ends merely

Mark the incredible freshness of your soon-to-be-sustenance.

Now armed with your arsenal of kale and carefully collected carrots,

A quick treat is in order…

A reward for being such a classily conscious eater.

Time to park the cruiser bike outside the bier garten

Enjoy a brewskie with the common folk!

$35 and three glasses of wine later,

It’s time to go home and fix up a delightful meal.

Perhaps even light a soy candle

In celebration of such a productive and produce-filled day.

But upon reaching the bicycle basket,

A grim scene unfolds.

The sweet potatoes that little Jenny

From the farm around the block sold you must have been one too many,

Because they seem to have clobbered the cuties

Which were just too precious not to purchase.

And you can’t tell the difference between the spinach and the sprouts anymore

Because the sun squirted Vitamin D all over them,

Dissolving all your pretty plants into a giant slurry mess.

What to do now?

All that money spent on wine leaves you with only $20 in your pocket

And a very hungry family to feed.

But look there, next to the local thrift shop –

Which donates its proceeds to baby kittens in need of a good home –

Is a pizzeria.

Dinner is saved!

And the window reads “X-tra large pie

With X-tra cheese and breadsticks

Only $19.99.”

It’s fate,

And it’s settled.

Your fancy cruiser stays stationary

(You couldn’t get the lock open, anyway)

As you hail a cab,

With a greasy cardboard box under your arm.

So, with a breadstick in one hand

And the key to your townhouse in another,

Your outing has come to an end,

And so have all delusions

Of socially responsible grandeur