Cost of Living

It may not set you back
Enough to really set you back
May force you to fall forward
Into all the things you lack

The strength that you’ve been earning
From faith and sustenance
Is spent on begging Jesus
For a twenty-second chance

The woman on the corner
Out from in between the throes
Spends her spirit running from the shame
Of taking off her clothes

The secret ways you bide your time
Are more expensive than you know
Filling your home with wrath and worry
Leaves less room to grow

The cost of living day to day
Makes it hard for meeting ends
Has us budgeting our love
And borrowing patience from our friends

Then when the stale day starts to sour
And cutbacks bend your brow
You contemplate a tragic means
To escape the here and now

Take life at face value
And you miss the value in facing life
The price of precious lessons learned
Is more than worth the strife

So be careful where you spend your heart
And what a sharp tongue may buy
Because life has a wealthy answer
For your patient, worried “why’ .