Tabula Rasta

Prime rate


Foreclosed, the Joneses’ house exhales defeat.
Abandoned expectations.
Only good times, only upward mobility,
only another low introductory rate, only rewarding deeper debt,
only this time the cards
do no favors
for Bill and Elaine.

Not favoring a dream containing
ATVs, SUVs, big TVs,
nor Elaine’s mood elevators, the pills
that kept the monstrous anxieties at bay, kept the razor
from the wrist
and shriveled life’s joy, now expendable,
because there’s just no living life when it turns on you.
It figures.

The Joneses aren’t together now –
Bill’s in Seattle working graveyard, Elaine lives with Steve, and his kids,
and her kids,
and Steve’s boats.