Payback Time

All our debts are owed to the living

only paying those obligations can appease

the shadows of the dead inside us

We mortgage ourselves –

we borrow against future intentions

trusting in some celestial banker to approve our loans

And when those debts are called in –

when the lender forecloses

it is too late to choose a different financial instrument

to say what we left unsaid

to do what we left undone

All our debts are to the living

those to the dead we own forever