My truck wouldn't start this morning.
I had to take the bus and I was late to work
and I kept thinking, "Dammit. I can't afford a car issue right now."
Also, I'm probably gonna lose my health insurance
because now is not a particularly good time
to be employed by the state of California.
So, I'll have to buy super shitty health insurance
that won't help me in any way
because I have pre-existing conditions.
I don't have any savings to speak of.
My income changes with the seasons.
I am not financially stable.
I am writing this poem on my cell phone in a series of text messages,
while I wait for the bus, because my pen went dry
and I couldn't wait til I got home to get this down.
Anyway, here's the point: fuck financial security.
I have been on the brink of financial ruin
for most of my adult life.
I'm sorta used to it.
And this is what I have learned:
I can live on very little.
I am totally okay with being moderately poor.
Compared to most of the world,
I live like a fucking king.
And besides, I don't need much money
to do what I want to do with my life:
be creative, make stuff that means something, contribute.
The book says, "Do not store up for yourself
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy
and where thieves break in and steal."
The Wall Street thieves and Capitol Hill thieves
and all manner of moth-men
cannot take away from me what matters most.
So, I will not be afraid.
I will consider the lilies of the field.
They don't give two shits about Wall Street.
So while men in suits scramble
for the scraps of a broken system,
while my elders encourage me to save and invest,
I'll keep on writing, and teaching, and living.
The things I love have nothing to do with money,
I have chosen to invest in different things.
