"Hold on."
"Try harder."
"Just a little longer to get through."
I understand you're trying to encourage and be kind,
but these words you're spouting at me
aren't anything new.
This "revelation" you've given me
tried to take root in my soul, as words do,
but they shriveled up dry
& the rejection left a nasty bruise.
For growth demands light & water & love,
but I've been long out of those,
so although your push to borrow tomorrow's happiness is tempting,
that's how people end up in debt, as the universe knows.
When we use things unearned
& take what's not ours with empty promises of repayment,
the heart shrivels under the weight of the endless torment
which is the Happiness Debt.

In my simple youth I borrowed much,
My mother made me, yet I protested
I did not wish to miss a beat
I spent it all on simple dreams
No man ever wants nor needs.
I am but a Debtor.

Now I am a man of age
Locked inside a borrower’s cage,
I work to pay my own long bill
I am torpid but cannot be still
I am but a Debtor.

Look at me, a man of old
Still in debt of yet untold
The Sandman beckons me  
I will finally rest at last
I am not a Debtor.