Get Rich Quick

            happy birthday to me

Rhyming the way it does
with that diesel hum

a primal sound coaxed
from the seaweed strings
of an underwater cello

the moon’s magnetic pull
leaving cracks in the pavement

you could climb down into them
& never be heard from again

& it’s just another notch cut into the calendar
the homage paid with interest compounded

every breath you take
you’ll have to give back some day