Free Verse

Financial Advice for the Middle Class

 

Well let’s see here, you’ve got a

Methuselah-year mortgage deep underwater,

a consumptive 401(k) coughing up blood,

and Alpha Centauri is closer than your next paycheck.

Let’s just forget about retirement

and plan on working until you are

brittle and empty like a cicada shell

blowing in a dark wind

among the withered stalks

of the blighted fields.