Imagine having to pay for your life
the way you pay for your heat
the way you buy your electricity
the way you purchase water and sewer.

Perhaps if we received
a monthly bill for
"Life-Services Rendered"
breath and
blood and
heart beating and
neurons firing and
general suspension of the return-to-dust clause

we would remember that
life is a utility we can't generate
and be immune to
the otherwise-all-pervasive plague
of self-sufficiency.