How To Save Money

bottlecap

broken paperclip

infinite jest

microphone

fan

When you collect empty bottles 

to return for five-cent deposits,

save the bottle-caps for a makeshift

tambourine.

This is Plan-B, of course,

and it assumes you don't have

a bulletin board that charts

the national debt. 

It assumes your financial records

are scattered, in the middle of an empty room.

Take the broken paperclip 

and scratch your name 

in the western wall's paint. 

By now you should have rhythm,

and a name to save.

Remember your first babysitter,

how you wailed as your mother gave

her instructions: bedtime, snacks, et cetera.

Remember how she let you stay up late,

to watch Macgyver, and how you

basked in her infinite jest

and most excellent fancy,

backlit by television. 

Now take the tambourine,

and tap four times. Repeat. 

Put your mouth near the microphone.

Closer. Eat the microphone. 

The microphone is the stillness

at the center of a window fan,

the unmoving origin of all whirring. 

Sing your name;

record to save.