I have no regrets for the way I've lived my life. It could be different. Maybe if I made this or that decision. I never had “fuck you” money or old family cash to keep poverty at bay. I was always one step ahead of things falling apart. Entirely probable I've made bad choices along the way but the outcome has proven lucky. No free rides to the bank. Money’s always a problem and it seemed no matter how much or how little of it there was at any given time it was always the obstacle in the way of living life.
Like playing Monopoly, hoarding all that fake cash and property, it never made sense. At least it never mattered to me. I felt free than when I had nothing in the game of life. Everybody wants hotels on Boardwalk but they get a little house on Marvin Gardens and they’re pissed. They want to pass Go and collect the 200 bucks but they go straight to jail instead. The game’s rigged. Win or lose it's all the same: you can't take it with you. And where would you take it to?
Cold hard cash or the lack thereof is always the big issue. Mainly because I’ve never had any or not enough. The same pain in the ass. I’ve always scraped by somehow surviving another year. The solution and the symptom were always the same. Live to work or work to live, it's the give and take of the haves vs. the have-nots. Whoever’s winning is beyond my realm of reason. There’s the 1% who control everything. The driving force behind every unknown. You never know until you look but it could disappear too. It allows freedom, if only to breathe. Even air and water have a price tag. The concept of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay is malarkey.
Wage slaves for profit from the sweat off our backs. From spoons of silver or plastic we suck it up. Persevere and keep up good appearances for the sake of sanity and whoever cares to actually notice. You do a stupid song and dance for 40 hours a week all your life to stay out of the poor house. It only takes one small misstep to start a series of events that can ruin your day or your life, and you're suddenly on the street. I try not to dwell on misfortune but it's always here in this overpriced landscape called democracy. A lifestyle of no return.
It's always the same in "civilized" places. There’s an unspoken truth that you must pay to play in a rigged lottery. Yet nobody's winning here except for the liars and cheaters. An unwritten rule carries us along a primrose path to a convenience of faux luxury in the secure bosom of hope. “Con” the operative word. A stinking bouquet decorates a place where if you work hard enough and mind your business you can achieve that dream. A quick glance around reveals a surreal scenario of untruth. The privileged lick their lips with entitlement. In a country where real criminals rule and flourish while the majority goes down hard. The ones who hold you in contempt, flaunt power and work the room for the benefit of none but their loyal cronies and fellow crooks. In a place where lies are in style and hate is the new fashion. Those who swear to protect and serve. Searching high and low for the last honest truth.
Distraction lifts it stupid head to supremacy. The confusion of the average citizen counting pennies makes it even worse. A sleight-of-hand misdirection keeps us running back to the slop bucket of facts. Hypnotized by a desire to want more fiction. Allow the greedy to conduct business as usual and continue to rape and pillage with their jackbooted thugs. Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy time. It can make things easier, run smoother, satisfy that ache and fill the need.
Happiness is something you make like a cake. You need all the ingredients to spread that sweet icing but it won't fill the holes in your store-bought boxed mix story. The cause and solution to all or nothing. The grand illusion that validates another’s mirage. Lies are the new currency. Contented dimwits dream in the deep side of the pool where murky water hides the shimmer stain of life. Charity begins in the mind. Throw money at them, maybe they’ll go away and leaves us alone. Home to dollar deals and buy-one-get-one half off sales. Where it's believed thoughts and prayers could ever solve our dilemmas. The general consensus for spending compensates credit cards for services rendered. Suffer for art or sing for some supper. No thanks for jobs well done. The bills are past due. Society’s debts go unpaid. Going for broke in a bankrupt place. Money never solved anything. But a little spare change might help.