Indebted

My world appears solid.
Two decades of educational debt
Prairie rent, propane heat, the weight
Of this generation of apathetic students.
I learn to empty my head, any willing head
The way my sister learned to empty
Herself of self-eating flesh.

The day I told Citibank Rebecca
Was dead, the moneylender, startled, said
We are sorry. Could you please send
Us the certificate of her death?
And that is how it begins. Forgiveness
Of the middle class fantasy of wealth.

Just like that, the hounds she worked for, cried for
Scrimped, and in death’s room wrinkled her brow for
Became a short phone call, a piece of paper
In a file that couldn’t follow or define her
Success in death’s vaultless new world.

2014