According to the Study
By Erin Belieu
The rich report greater levels of happiness,
& the study goes on to demonstrate
how we humans use money to save ourselves,
first from starving, then danger, & finally, from
our neighbors,
the rich solving so thoroughly
for the stinks & noise
of other stinky, noisy people.
Granted, my research is anecdotal,
but calls to mind the subtle shadows inside the Spanish word
aislar, meaning both to insulate & isolate. I’ve known
the rich, & gladly tap danced for their parties, double fisted
at their open bars, gorged myself in paneled corners
on blue crab puffs, content to be
rented for those hours, performing a toothlessly
arty tone.
I’ve studied them & coveted, glued my invisible price tags
to their Hermès & Baccarat, smiled as the servants’ door
banged repeatedly against an
original Renoir.
My personal findings reveal
their Wi-Fi doesn’t work either. So, old, or new,
in the flavor of their aloneliness,
the rich are pretty much the same.
But unlike the surplus population,
they need a solitude specially made, designed to be airy,
capacious, with hand-blown acoustics
to amplify their silences.
From Water Mill to Malibu, observe their fortresses
steeled above the beach front, how their fences each year appear
a little steeper, while still sinking farther
into the swale.
Imagine the comforts of the rich,
the repose in knowing we all die alone,
but to do so with such
enviable lighting
& desirably peopleless views.
