The Self

Bankruptcy

Poverty destroys the mind,
And lack of food the body.
Love is not enough to give.
And madness is a charm.

A bankruptcy destroys the fiend,
If phantoms really die.
A hundred eighty APR -
Improbable to think.

So payments do not lessen debts,
But just increase the balance.
Desperation and a judge,
With misbegotten hope.

No lover, no support, no friends,
Alone upon the wire,
And strangers do not see it all,
And think the bankrupt loathsome.

To leave it in a lawyer's hands,
And tell all creditors
To call your lawyer in their rage,
And life can sleep again.

A peaceful sleep that makes you cry,
Relief beyond description.
To pay all creditors in time.
You'd rather not pay any.

Creditors have swollen teeth
That peer behind their smiles.
Like Shylock with a pound of flesh
Or Jesus in the temple.

On the street with shopping carts
And digging through the garbage,
Are the crazy and the poor
Who have no creditors.

4-2-14

The Self


Small and miniscule, the self
Squeaking imperceptibly,
Escaped, a soul,
Ran out his open mouth
While he lay dying on the floor.
Crippled, hairless, like a mouse
It ran across the floor and died.
But no!  The self can never die,
But only shrivel, like a fist,
An unaggressive fantasy,
And dwell until the mind is gone.


4-2-14