After The Recession He Was A Better Man

Originally posted 10/19/2012.  

Once a rich man. Now, not so much.
Fell over his own feet.  Landed inside a rock.
(How did he fall into the rock, you say?
He lost his money. That made him
porous to tragedy. He fell onto the rock assuming
it would pass through, and instead he was absorbed.)
Can’t get out.  Can’t even see how.

So now he’s a poor man stuck in a rock.
He’s not alone in there. A lot of people
like him got sucked into rocks like his.
He feels a little trapped
but he’s making do until he dies,
which he has determined
will be his only way out.

He remembers being rich.
It was good but there were horrors too
based on the money
being such a big armor and cushion
that he felt under attack all the time.
No more. He’s in the rock
because of how soft and transparent
the money had made him
but he thinks he’s more rock himself now.

Those who are really rich
didn’t think of him as rich.
He knows that now.
He knows they can’t possibly
understand any of this —
too busy kicking rocks.
Too busy being petrified.
Better he came to this —
poor and stuck in a rock —
than to be like them. 

He might have become a jerk
if he’d come into money late.
Better to have entered the rock
poor and soft at his age
so being with these people
has become a community.

He won’t die rich
but he’s OK with that now too:
he’s just glad he’s not going
to die alone.  

He’s so happy
he’s pounding the walls of his rock
with his bare hands
as if he was drumming.