Consume, O Commoner Poem by Ananta Madhavan

The Consumer is king in a country
That has dethroned him long ago.
His duty is to consume what is put before him.
His wife and family have the same task,
Because they do not know and cannot ask
What to consume, until they have been told
What their neighbours, peers and rivals are
Avidly consuming.

The complexity of things does not daunt
The modern consumer. He drives his car,
Looks at television, warms the room by electric heater
Without a twinge of guilt about his ignorance
Of how the machines made for him are working.
This ignorance is a sort of armour
Against Faustian madness, perhaps.