Price Tag

I hope you’re going to buy that.

No,
I have no intention of buying this.

But you’ve handled it.
Now you’ve handled it, you have to pay for it.

Well,
I have handled many things in my lifetime.
I have handled situations
in which, whatever I did, I never came out on top.
I have handled feelings of rejection,
of exultation turned to disappointment,
of futility, of despair.
I have handled difficult girlfriends,
and ridiculous employers,
and feelings of incompleteness.
I have handled living in a country
with a permanently bruised ego,
in a world
in terminal decline.

What makes you think
I cannot handle this?

What makes you think
I will not, eventually,
pay?

Poetry Life National Competition winner, summer 1998