Terminal Fourth

--

I can't afford LA, nor Stone Ridge, New York

ni mi Viejo San Juan ni un rincón del corazón

I can't afford these grinding U.S. of A.

ni mi terruño natal, su abusada colonia

I can't afford my toxic friends and family

Can't afford to get old, get sick

Get well or hang around the inkwell

I can't really afford to live

But I'm perversely fascinated by the dark spectacle

of crumbling capital worlds--

Full-disclosure fearful of nothingness beyond

O wimp of little faith, can't afford to kill myself

There is nothing left but indefinite lingering--

Loitering spectator malingering witness

to my own pain and that of so many others

--