Product Displacement

       If you type kleenex or xerox in Word, it will automotically capitalize them as brand names.
(That's what you're supposed to do legally.)  But real people in the real world use those words when all they want is a tissue or a photocopy.  The following is a bit of light verse claiming the author's right to use such words generically, realistically- without it being a capitalized endorsement of a particular brand.  (I hope this is clear from the poem itself, even without this preamble.)                                  



                                                          Product Displacement


                                            Brands like Kleenex and Xerox always insist
                                            writers not treat their names as generic,
                                            but their call to Capitalize I’ll resist
                                            when writing my epics Homeric.
                                            Tissue and photocopy don’t quite sing
                                            no matter that they’re properly chosen.
                                            It’s better to strike truth’s solid ring
                                            than by lawyers’ cold stares be frozen.
                                            So my heroes keep xeroxing their work
                                            on whatever machine is handy;
                                            though I be labeled an illegal jerk,
                                            I’ll offer maids kleenexes like candy.
                                            And I’d be honored greatly after I’m dead
                                            if all poets would be called generically fred.