The Poem About All the Things You Don't Like, Which Is Titled "Fungible" by Kyla Houbolt

"You don't like weak women; you get bored so quick.

You don't like strong women cause they're hip to your tricks."

-- Joni Mitchell

You don't like cheese or saying

cheese for a photo. Headaches.

You don't like those, do you?

I bet you don't like that I'm now

making up things for you not to like.

Always, people did that to you,

making up their minds

about what you liked and didn't.

Butchering your name. Pretending

to know you better than you, they

sell you shit based on lies

you buy and pretend to like.

There's nothing else on the market.

All this marketing, this making up

of lies, twists reality into

irresolvable patterns and then

what are you going to do? You

remain lost, for years, mired in

invisible foolishness. Your

non-fungible existence mines

hard for gold. Yet even that, even

touching and holding its weight

in your hands, doesn't really

prove a damn thing, does it?

I mean, quantum physics

isn't real either.

---

Kyla Houbolt (she, her) occupies Catawba territory in Gastonia, NC. Her first two chapbooks, Dawn's Fool and Tuned were published in 2020. More about them on her website, https://www.kylahoubolt.com/ Her individually published pieces online can be found on her Linktree. She is on Twitter @luaz_poet.