Money often costs too much.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist

. . .

This question I ask, with some misgiving:

How long before we can’t afford a life worth living?

For life today, comes at a cost,

A price to pay, else life is lost.

Taxed we are to reside at home.

To avoid being employed by streets to roam.

Essential amenities behind cost’s curtains lie,

When last did you receive a free piece of pie?

If a slice of pastry appears too grand,

Can the indigent avail of water, bland?

Must hydration too be valued at a price?

Our thirst for money, I now realize.

Yet priceless are those moments of true worth,

Moments found even beside the pauper’s hearth.

. . .

Granville D. Austin