after The Bells, by Edgar Allan Poe

Fear the totaling of the bills!
Market bills -
What a time of thoughtless spending their urgency compels!
In the silence of the night
How some shiver with affright
At the melancholy meaning of the tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
Past Due!  And the people —
They that roam within the stores
Not alone,
And who shopping, shopping, shopping
Feel a glory buying more.
They are neither man nor woman —
They are neither brute nor human,
They are fools: —
And their greed, it is what tolls
As they roll, roll, roll
Up the total of the payment on their bills!
And they dance and they yell;
Keeping time, time, time,
As they whine, whine, whine
To the throbbing of the bills —
Of the bills, bills, bills —
Nearly sobbing at their bills: —
Keeping time, time, time,
As debt swells, swells, swells,
And they whine, whine, whine,
To the totaling of their bills —
Of the bills, bills, bills —
To the totaling of their bills —
Of the bills, bills, bills, bills,
Bills, bills, bills —
Oh, the moaning and the groaning at their bills.

© by Lauren McBride.
Used with the author’s permission.