Ian’s driving along seeing barcodes
In the stands of denuded trees
Along the road
…I wonder what they say?

I’m dreaming of planting telephone poles
In the desert
To spell out love poems
In Morse code

Or waking to find monoliths
On the National Mall
Encoding the national debt
In binary
(it’s still a lot of zeros)

And planting rows of wheat in the Midwest
Giving Earth its own UPC
For the scanners of alien invaders
So they’d understand the cost

Before they get to the checkout