Casey Killingsworth has work in The American Journal of Poetry, Kimera, Spindrift, Rain, Slightly West, Timberline Review, COG, Common Ground Review, Typehouse,  Bangalore Review, Two Thirds North, and other journals. His book of poems, A Handbook for Water, was published by Cranberry Press in 1995. As well he has a book on the poetry of Langston Hughes, The Black and Blue Collar Blues (VDM, 2008). Casey has a Master’s degree from Reed College.

My life as money
By Casey Killingsworth

I don’t want you to think I only look at life
in terms of money but when I go to work on Monday
I’m a dollar sign, income for somebody else,
how much work can I do in how little time.

I come home and the house measures me
as square footage, the view from the deck
I don’t have, how a second bathroom would help
the resale value, fix up the yellow lawn, etc.

When I’m in the store I watch people
watch me to see how much
I’m going to spend, to see
how big their bonuses will be.

Even love is money. Once someone
left me to go away to college to get a career
and there I was, holding hocked dreams
and working to make a square living.

I sit in the coffee shop
with a $3 coffee plus tip and wonder if
there’s any other way to count a life
but there is no other way.