CELEBRITY MARKET

The Borkowski poet in residence on celebrity over-the-counterculture.

In the celebrity market,
everything is up for sale,
from rentagob to rentamob
to the contents of their mail
You can buy their memoirs and their morals
from the bargain bins
in a couple of years you’ll even find
the clothes they wear to hide their sins
Everything’s expensive
but still they sell it cheap.
If it’s piled high enough
you’ll see it in your sleep
and, waking, want to buy it;
at least that’s what they hope.
They want you to part with money
for old celebrity rope.

Discount on the old Kate Moss
who campaigned against fur
now only the skins of monkeys
are good enough for her

Just three quid will get you
a footballer’s biography
quickly ghosted by a hack
buy one get two free

How about some fizzy pop
of the kind that comes in cans
bearing the name of a rapper
and made by wage-slave hands?

Or J Lo branded knickers?
Nickel-plated bling?
Mel Gibson’s bloodstained crucifix?
Paris Hilton’s anything?

In the celebrity market
they’ll only buy your time
then suck you in with stories
about their early lives of crime
that are just as tanned and fake
as their well preserved good looks
Be careful as you enter
they aren’t exactly crooks
but they are hiding something
under their maquillage
and they won’t let you get away
completely free of charge.
They need you to fill the emptiness
that consumes them from inside
your money is like love for them
but it only feeds their pride.