One hospital visit, one weeks wages,

one pregnancy, nine months of office calls,

vaccinations, birth control, broken legs

and sprained ankles and that nasty finger

shredded in the lawn mower.

A slip of roller-skate

and tailbone is broken. The dollars

piled up in account slipping lower.

Mom is no longer available

for chicken soup and midnight rescues.

Where did it all become so unbalanced?

Deep into your sixties with your ticker

beating off kilter? Your sugar-swelled legs

saying pay any price for the cure

any price, any freedom, it’s just more taxes,

not the insidious grip on your wallet

or the unvoted upon exercise of power

making life better for us all, right?