The New Money

--for Darren Chew

The offers come like starlit tribes of fancy
denominations meant to please the eye.
So when truth winds down a note or two
you find your self counting: the busy
days, when without much left to do you list
successes by the amounts of pain you’ve caused
some poor fellow to endure--he’s no match
for the pitiless guile that glues you to your desk.

In some space other than your own the sleet
is thick as webs and coats the streets, no answer
for the demand you’ve made today. Still
as a thousand ghosts basking in the Son’s
eternal kiss, your life has become all of this--
a crock, you spend your days on a sunless coast, alone.