She Told Me Money Does Not Buy
Happiness, Then She Hopped In Her
BMW And Drove Away
Julie Buffaloe-Yoder
Money does not buy happiness.
But it does buy a house,
lights, heat, a warm belly.
It buys a full night of sleep
on a Posturepedic mattress.
It buys freedom to write about
suburban angst and anger.
A shelf full of books.
Poetry conferences.
Art on your walls.
A night at the opera.
A bra not held together
with safety pins.
Shoes without holes
that leave blisters.
A car with a windshield.
An engine that won’t
bubble and hiss
after ten miles.
A cute new suit
for a job interview.
It buys a world where
duct tape is not
home renovation
and the Dollar Store
is not one-stop shopping
for the holidays.
It buys a ticket out
of hand-me-downs.
An honorable discharge
from the Salvation Army.
It buys meat that’s not blue.
A week without measuring beans.
A blessing without mold,
cilantro, crisp baby asparagus.
It buys standing in line without
scraping the bottom of a
broke-handle pocketbook.
It buys a life where you
have so much dignity
you walk by
a fountain of coins
and have no desire
to dive in.
It buys people
who will listen
when you scream.
It buys gas or a train
or a plane so you can
go all over the world,
stand on a soapbox
and chide me for daring
to be so shallow as to
want something this
vile, filthy, despised.
You are so right.
I should know better
than to think
all that grubby green
will ever set me free.
from Price Reduced Again (Backback Press, 2009)
Julie Buffaloe-Yoder
Julie Buffaloe-Yoder’s work has appeared in various journals, including ouroboros review, Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, Grain Magazine, The Panhandler, Pemmican, The Wilmington Review, A Carolina Literary Review, storySouth, Clapboard House, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, Side of Grits, Poiesis #2, Shoots and Vines, Rusty Truck, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, I Can’t Be Your Virgin and Your Mother, The Telling Time, Don’t Call Me Plath, Big Hammer, Southern Women’s Review and Plain Spoke.
Julie is a winner of the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence award in poetry. Her first chapbook, Price Reduced Again, is published by Backpack Press.
She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Roy Yoder. Their daughter, Amber Yoder, is a filmmaker and a producer for
Respect Films. Amber created the cover art for Price Reduced Again.
Read some of Julie’s poetry at her blog, The Buffaloe Pen.
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Price Reduced Again can be purchased through Backpack Press. Copies are available by sending a request and $8 US or $11 (outside US) to:
Shoots and Vines
Backpack Press
PO Box 489
Poseyville, IN 47633
Please make cheques payable to Crystal Folz.
Queries may be addressed to backpackpress@shootsandvines.com.
