my new favorite band
sings just to me
when you have pain or debt
who do you borrow from?

i think of Dunbar again
(just one riotous day)
and the root, of course,
in my love affair with words.

debt: Latin (debere), to owe
how ironic, rhymes with borrow
and i wonder if the Avetts, whose
name sounds like the Latin avis (bird)

are asking me (they sing to me)
if i borrow pain (can we borrow suffering?)
or if debt is a form of pain
or if it is life we borrow.

i will never know.
i am just a listener of songs
like all the other listeners,
borrowing their music to bury my pain.