The Clerk - a poem for Black Friday

                                             The Clerk

                                           Crouching on cardboard ledgers

                                             I watch as my inky numbers

                                             Hurry   crawl    stumble…then

                                             Quick-before-they-fall, stand up

                                             Salute and mumble into this:

                                             The simple YES & NO

                                              RICH & POOR, GREAT SUCCESS or NOT

                                              Today RED and Tomorrow BLACK.

                                              Easy, but is it all? Is there anything

                                              Left to lack, off the record,

                                              Not in a ready realm?

                                              At home, my private answers
                                                      run far from clear.

                                              Daily, I compute to 
                                                      marginal shades of grey.

                                              At last check, my largest accounts still lay

                                              Un-won, moldering in foreign banks.

                                              Trust seems a sorry venture.

                                              What’s good for me is mutually safe, 
                                                      mutually  mine.

                                              The surest numeral I know is

                                               ME, MYSELF, ONE, ALONE.

                                               Post:

                                               AS OF THIS DATE
                                               I WILL NO LONGER

                                               BE RESPONSIBLE

                                               FOR ANY DEBTS
                                               OTHER THAN MY OWN.

                                               Kay Weeks  c. 1970