Selling And Being Sold

'Heroin is the only product you sell people
to, rather than sell to people'.-William Burroughs

He was discounting methadone,
the antidote to heroin dependency
which Mr Burroughs never escaped alive.

Dependency and selling conflate  acutely well.
Marriage is one state that people are sold into, as dependents.
Many feminists argue that women
were and are 'sold in marriage to men',
as if they were mere property.

In arranged marriages both partners
are sold into marriage long before the event takes place,
to the benefit of the the tribal elders
who claim control the young as reward for their longevity.
That the young are always young enough
to be manipulated, unawares, is the point.

Slaves are sold people too, and like drug deals
the transactions in which they are sold
are often reinforced with lies and violence.

For all who conflate being sold to
with luxury and civilisation, wishing
is the beginning of the sense of not having,
which is what leads to us all being sold.