Spending Life
Sept 26 2007


You spend your life
doing this or that,
as if there was only so much cash in the bank.
You could blow it all at once
on dancing girls in Vegas.
Or stuff it under the mattress for a rainy day.
Or keep track of all the losses and gains;
as if life was a zero sum game
and you, its bookkeeper,
entering numbers and names
in a pool of light at your desk.

You walk down Main St.
jauntily humming off-key,
a hand in your pants front-pocket
jingling change.
The coins are a reassuring weight
accompanying you like castanets and tambourines,
making music for free.