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Monday, April 9, 2012

At the Tax Office



The line up:
quiet 
orderly 
a few muffled grumbles
no sense of urgency....just yet
Still three weeks before the deadline 
Young and old with
folders, 
manilla envelopes
shoe boxes
brief cases.

Last year’s taxes wrap up 
the mandatory financial picture of 
personal business of life          
anchored to the politics of the country.

Signatures,
numbers, 
verified
validated
review of the previous year
tomorrow’s accountability for $$ spent
without showing the experience in
quality
form
function
needed to acquire and maintain those $$

$$ do not explain how each business transaction arrived
with a set of hopes or fears
joy or anxieties.
Reduced to a mere paper trail sent 
over the wires
or in the mail
it is only money.

"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today."
~ Herman Wouk

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