Provincetown, Massachusetts

Provincetown, Massachusetts

the dreary repetition
of tourist towns
sinks imagination
and dulls senses.

gimmicky facades
and closet-sized shops
stack horizontal
along narrow streets.

quaint, cute, and expensive,
they offer
depression’s perfect palliative-
spending.

in one the air is thick
with incense and jewelry.
another smothers
with unimaginably empty music.

not surprisingly,
almost everything they contain
seems desirable,
even necessary.