For William Stafford
You
and I think about it: who pays
the
price for the way we live?
Some
people live so still
they
incur no expenses. Others,
so
wild there's the Devil to pay.
Some
don't even know they're in debt
and
others go slow to avoid it.
People
like you pay as you go
and
people like me live in debt,
but
we know who we owe. I owe
a
woman, a good woman, and I
will
never be able to pay.
People
like you are beautiful
and
free of all debt. The best
that
can be said for people like me
is
that we know who we owe.