Grim Collections

So it is punching in or clocking out,
We trade in time. like a black check,
Pay the rent or debt - how our lives get spent.
Arrested effort. stuck in this sentence.
Fleeting comforts leave seasons scarred, or lost like arguments.
Miscalculations leave the means unjustified.
The haunted questions come with shaking heads.
They hunt the youngest and tie their tongues up.
You cut open speech when you chew your teeth.
It's all a mess: a trash or spit abyss.