a bit more time

she calls in
every once in a while
looking for a bit more time
to square up her bill
the corporation
doesn’t work like that
and she won’t get her check
from Social Security
until the 20th
and it’s the 7th now
and I wonder what she’ll eat
until then
tho whenever
I speak to her
I think about
when she was girl
spiral-curled
pigtails
and not a care
in the world
tho I hadn’t known her
then
I do know
there’d once been a time
when there was nothing but time