Catalog Fantasies

by Paul Hellweg

Where I live,
we have rural mail delivery,
and the carrier commonly
mixes things up,
lately I’ve been getting
sexy catalogs in the mail,
last week Victoria’s Secret
(addressed to my
next door neighbor),
today a Venus swimsuit ad
(addressed to a woman
miles away),
and I honestly don’t know
what the universe
is trying to tell me,
perhaps the love I seek
is as close as next door
or maybe
it’s miles away,
or possibly my
hopes
dreams
desires
amount to nothing more than
catalog fantasies.