Wage Slave Birthday

Sing to me

Over the phone,

“Happy Wage Slave Birthday.”

Sugar in my blood is spiking

Like the interest

Held against me my favorite toys and

Favorite hurts and all

the everyday mistakes.

The hospital keeps calling,

Debts Accumulate

Into a cake.

I priced me out

Of my time.

Am I’m selling off

My only life?

Every minute after college,

I’ve grown angrier about the lie.

Paying back the promise.

Thirty years drip down, one at a time.

The candles dot the tower top.

My time and money

Blowing out.

I sputter in a dark room.

All the credits cut, I’m cashing out.

A lottery or accident

Both breeze beneath the trapdoor.

The hangmans hood and common good

Both tell me what to wish for.