MISER’S LAMENT

Your silence was golden,
but below market value.
I seized upon it, anyway,
with a miser’s gnarled heart,
alight in the knowledge that
what I possessed left everyone
else with a little bit less.

Did you just say something?
Damn. That depreciates the sum
total; every word eating away
at my unspoken stockpile.
I beg of you, keep your thoughts
to yourself. If less is more, think
how much more even less would be…