<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; ">The Reckoning</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">All profits disappear: the gain</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Of ease, the hoarded, secret sum;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">And now grim digits of old pain</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Return to litter up our home.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">We hunt the cause of ruin, add,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">Subtract, and put ourselves in pawn;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">For all our scratching on the pad,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">We cannot trace the error down.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">What we are seeking is a fare</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">One way, a chance to be secure:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">The lack that keeps us what we are,</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3">The penny that usurps the poor.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; min-height: 19px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"><br></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Times; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica" size="3"> - Theodore Roethke</font></div></body></html>