When you have to pay everything,
there’s no more counting cost,
no need, as there is no withholding

When you have to pay everything
because the cost is exactly
the whole of you,
you step across a threshold
to infinity

The things in daily life can’t tell you,
on their own, but somehow
you will come to know
you can’t be bought or sold,
can’t make a bargain of yourself,
and can’t be dolled,
and paying everything may be the price
for knowing that you always have been whole.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 12, 2022