In response to Hieronymus Bosch’s The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.
Wanting is not the same as wanting
more, always more, which is greed,
wanting that to which we are not entitled.
For the honest plaintiff, a sympathetic ear.
An open, hidden hand for the defendant’s bribe.
This judge weighs the side most tipped with gold
as the truest justice on his scales.
Because how fine it is to own things!—
their status and heft, to desire and possess,
to use and set aside as easily as a breath
of air, no hindrance to the taking.
To want a companioned home, some happiness
we feel we are owed—this is not greed,
but to be counted among the living, among the loving.
