Fringe dweller! Fringe dweller!
Where are you hiding?
the corporation needs your best productive years,
the government has entitled
itself to half your earnings,
the realtor has a house with
cracked foundation to unload,
an “SUV” has your name on it on the car lot,
the banker's interest forms
are waiting for a signature,
the insurance company needs assurance
in guaranteed monthly withdrawals
from your account,
and the church is counting heads
to see who hasn't paid the tithe:
fringe dweller, aren't you afraid of hell?

Where are you, fringe dweller?
The doctor hasn't been able
to collect your share of Medicare for some time:
and who's going to pay
for his new mansion and Jaguar, or don't you care?
The pharmacist stares at blank prescription forms;
a whole world of bureaucrats is on hold for you
and what about all the others queuing up?
Dentist, optometrist, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst,
counselor, accountant, policeman, lawyer,
judge, warden, hangman; plumber, roofer,
carpenter, re-decorator, baker, butcher,
computer, cable TV, magazine
and daily news inventors
work their fingers to the bone
punching that telephone:
come on, fringe dweller,
what's your number?

Get hooked on
the internet-- enjoy our services!
we have beds in nursing homes
and long-term care
or, if not, your pension will
adequately cover a hallway spot...
oh, I almost forgot another gentleman
chewing his nails in nervous dread:
he's heard you can now fly away
with your body to someplace
no one may ever find:
that's definitely not being fair:
have you no heart?
would you also cheat the undertaker?

Come on, fringe dweller return to the fold!
So a wolf or two are in charge of the sheep:
what makes you so picky, fringe dweller?
Come back. society needs you, can't you see?

“Yeah, I can see!”
chuckles the fringe dweller,
contemplating a changing earth
from a child's hideaway...