Owed by all of us, indefinitely,
With infinite interest and impossible fees
Crushes us beneath the weight
Of a hundred billion "will be"s and "won't be"s,
And all those heavy "may be"s.
It chokes us with the "is"s and the "are"s,
Punishing us for the "wasn't"s and the "were"s.
It tortures us with the "if"s,
And convinces us to do it to ourselves.
It rips and gnaws and tears us to pieces,
Driving us to kill ourselves and each other.
It sings to us that keening song
In the wails, the shrieking sobs,
And we are compelled to join.
A debt to pay that unfathomable price,
A delay of those inevitable dues -
For grief is the price we pay for love,
And we all love something we'll lose.
