Status is an overcrowded neighborhood

Status is an overcrowded neighborhood

with spiking home prices

and so many barbeques

that the sky is thick with smoke

and smells of melting stags,

so many pool parties

that the children are clean

as newly-minted pennies—

shiny and coppery to the taste—

Don’t move there

Don’t drive through

Don’t visit relatives there—

rent in rundown Respect

rather than buy in the suburbs

of Pride.

-Geoffrey Griffard