There’s a bottle of shampoo in my bathroom
telling me I’m Worth It, but he disagrees.
Well, it’s only advertising, propaganda
to popularise a notion. Sell it.
We blame him, the man on the tape,
questioned covertly, off-the-cuff,
a face to spit a label on
for the labels we rail against:
heard every day in the bus shelter,
in Weatherspoons, queuing in Tesco
when someone a bit funny-looking
is fumbling with their bags,
getting in the way.
Sometimes it’s us:
we gripe under our breath,
mean and unrecorded.
Feeling greasy at the roots?
That shampoo was on offer, better value
– I’d prefer a more expensive brand,
the same as everyone else.
Now the £2 coin in my pocket
may need to stretch so much further.
© Holly Magill
Holly Magill is from Worcestershire. She has a BA in Creative Writing from The University of Birmingham and has had work in “Ink, Sweat & Tears”, “The Poetry Bus” and “The Stare’s Nest”. She is visually impaired.
