Carla Schwartz
Tax Reform
You will pay only with German pancakes and peach pies,
your donation to those in need.
You will teach a child to read.
Start with a Heffalump, end with a Sneetch.
You will glean the vinca from your small plot of land,
a fistful tugged from soil for every dollar gained.
You will inherit kindness from your benevolent neighbours,
and for that you can drink in the pastels across the sunset sky.
You will credit yourself to finish early.
You will deduct what you cannot attend to.
You will look up from your book and smile
at a crow, swooping overhead.
Grateful to live in a wise land,
to understand what it means to pay tax.