Glamorous Bottles
Bottles in the antique store.
Potions, poisons and promises
in liquid form.
The few labels left present a list
of ailments, a long list,
diverse and impossibly comprehensive.
Snake oil. Magic. Hocus pocus
in an amber bottle. Fortunes were made
for a short while.
At least until the truth arrived.
And then on to the next town,
the next label, the next false story.
Human nature, the need for magic,
ignoring the simple prescriptions, proven,
but in less glamorous bottles.
About this poem
Too often we chase the fads, the wildest promises, ignoring the simple things in life that just work. And we are the losers.
Tom
Quarry House 
Nice informative work. What happens when they don’t chase away the snake oil, but really begin to believe in it, ignoring the proven bottles?
I suspect you know what happens. Some are made worse. Some escape in time. Others die. No matter the form the snake oil takes.
“Human nature, the need for magic,
ignoring the simple prescriptions, proven,
but in less glamorous bottles.”
So much truth in this.
Opening your daily ponderings to us in the “ethernet” is such a gift. Thank you.