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Commentary
This poem goes in my “After Fire” series. It was suggested by the frustration of unboxing all our “stuff” in an erstwhile clean and tidy restored house.
My father warned me against “using big words when little words will do.” So I apologize for “avaricious.”* “Acquisitive” is arguably milder, though still a “big” word. I’d have chosen that adjective if it fit the poem.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter how much money we make…. Most of us in our U.S. culture DO struggle with avarice.
The notion that ancient cultures have patience to conquer was suggested to me by recent news of America’s conflicts with Persia and China.
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*Dictionary.com defines avaricious as “an adjective meaning having or showing an extreme, insatiable desire for wealth or material gain. It describes someone who is aggressively greedy, grasping, and often miserly—prioritizing the hoarding of money or possessions above all else.”