The can’s expiration date is 2004
but that means little to me
for I am a mighty man,
made of sterner stuff
– and more important,
I know that the Cannery-Industrial Complex
wants you to believe that foods have limited utility
so they can sell to you all the more.

But I am not so easily fooled.
Surely this can was sold to me
in the last three years
and they simply backdated its expiration
to fool me
into throwing it out immediately.

No, I am not thus cowed.
I am a braver man than they can imagine.
The Cannery-Industrial Complex does not have me in its claws.
I >Burp< Pardon me.
Oh, excuse me. I gotta go.