Sarah Wardle

Values

issue 27 September 2014

The final way we’re held to account
is the standing order we never chose.
To whatever our lives might amount,
our contracts state death will foreclose.

Eventually our assets will diminish
sans heart and eyes, brain and breath.
There falls a repayment of the spirit,
the sum we bequeath, pounds of flesh.

When we are lying on our deathbeds
asking ourselves what we have to show
for our time, will voices in our heads
say life’s last debt is pay as you go?

In this age of global recession
the contemporary view of the soul
is one of temporary possession
owned by each only as a loan.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in