why are you playing animal crossing instead of talking to me
Zephyr Zhang
you tell me you are in debt to tom nook
you don’t know when it started, how it happened
some time between dripping mortgage on your welcome mat
and selling you a repossessed chair, you tell me
he’s not so bad, even though he keeps saying
“I’ll be there with bells on! ho ho!”
I could not predict how quickly he would
get you by the debt-strings
how quickly he would become your creditor-crush
your beloved bankruptor, your evergreen future foreclosure
when you said you wanted your life to feel expansive
I did not think you meant expanding loans
believe me, I understand fiscal pining
dreams of a paid off home
but I’m worried about you
spending your days drawing hearts on invoices
collecting cherries and tarantulas and god knows what else
gambling on stalk market turnip prices
but this is where you have ended up every night for weeks
under the glow of the atm, retrying bounced cheques, begging for extensions
you cannot sleep, cannot eat
cannot think about anything other than his stern tanuki eyes
you say you owe him everything
look in the mirror and all you see is insolvency
darling, you know I would never tally your debts
never greet you with bills
I would gladly give you my life’s savings
all you need to do is learn to love your empty pockets
but I say nothing and your eyes gaze into the distance
towards the ringing register