ISSUE 5
Benjamin Harnett
Return Label
​
I have packaged up with
over-exceeding care
as if sending it
across the seas to a cousin
serving in the war
to end all wars (that didn’t),
or as if I were a salaried clerk
in a department store
when businesses still cared
to pretend to care,
this return,
not out of any motivation
except an increasing surplus
I can find no other productive
means of absorption
for, besides. As for
the printed return label,
I place it on cardboard corner,
a flash of white, a bright fable:
it is a story I have often told myself
of socially useful exertion,
my assertion that
all this waste (subsumed
into the costs of goods
improperly, as against
the cost of sales),
is of benefit
to myself, and to man.
​
​
Benjamin Harnett is a poet, fiction writer, historian, and digital engineer. His poetry has appeared recently in Poet Lore, Saranac Review, ENTROPY, and the Evansville Review. He is the author of the novel THE HAPPY VALLEY and the short story collection GIGANTIC. He lives in Cherry Valley, NY with his wife Toni and their collection of eccentric pets. He works for The New York Times.