Material Burdens

A homeless thief picked my pocket today

As I was wandering a crowded sidewalk fray
To remove my lottery ticket apparently so
Since the pocket he picked was light on doe
Was it I the burden should have won
Or will the criminal now win the sum

Later I view his image on the news at ten
Very boldly does he speak to friends
Informing the down and out how rich life is grand
Unaware of his joyous burden at hand

His logic is a mere tenuous trick
Pride enormous swelling his head thick
A 20 room mansion he buys at the beach
Unknown friends come around to leech

His mind is taking him places with no trouble at all
He's so high in the sky there is no place to fall
The news announces he is part of the jet set
But the antithesis of money is undoubtedly debt

My life rings clear my time here saved
The money trail is a path better left unpaved
The thief had relieved me of a heavy tow
There is still a field to plow and wheat to sow
For god has given man strong hands for labor
And not for trading in the ungodly colored paper

But Still, while lying on the earth in repose
I jealously wait and listen in silence
For joyous yelling of some sort in the distance
Of my ship to come in loaded with gold
Of the nature of my soul to turn around and be sold

Instead I hear bees begging at the dandelions so sweet
The wind pushing dropped cherry tree leaves on top of me
The blades of grass rubbing together in a song
The noise of a train whistle in the thick air lingering long

In quiet contemplation I think as I doze
Today as the wealthy lottery ticket owner I posed
But I am rich with family, a lover and friends
This is solid material and not pretend

Now the thief's burden is the wealth I supposed
Rich with new comfortable slumber I begin
Here I rest wanton for burdens naught again
Nor the vines of pain and misery it grows

Mark, 2010