The Cost of Living - May 31 2022

 

The Cost of Living

May 31 2022

The cost of living

is more than you'd imagine.

Even if

when inflation is high

and the pay cheque squeezed

you think you know it exactly.

But what about the other costs

there's no accounting for

In a double entry ledger?

Why keep our talk

to hard cash, exhausted credit?

Perhaps because

it's the one hardship

we can follow and measure.

Or because

given how unlikely we are to begin with

  —  the accident of birth

the mystery of consciousness  —

anything else would seem ungrateful.

Still, life is hard,

no matter how well you've born the cost.

In stress, pain, and grief,

disappointment

disillusion

infirmity.

Which are all true,

but fail to balance the books,

to account for the blessings

the pleasures

the highs.

Because for every cost, a benefit.

The delights of the table.

The beauty

of music, art, nature.

The word on the tip of your tongue

that suddenly comes

when you've given up trying.

A newborn child.

The life of the mind.

The triumph

you never expected.

Her naked body

held in your arms

on a warm summer night.

The being in love

as well as the giving.

And even more

the falling in.

Then making it last.

The bed you share.

Her simple presence

when you're together alone.

That look in her eyes

when you need it most.

Where the only cost

is time

which has always been too much:

going too fast

and never enough.

One of the pleasures of poetry comes from its attentiveness to language. You are invited to listen closely, deconstruct words and expressions, turn things on their side and look again. To play, make mischief. Use language both metaphorically and ironically. And sometimes, for the things we've grown accustomed to hearing in familiar ways, use it literally. Here, the true cost of living becomes more than dollars and cents.