“The value of life is an economic value used to quantify the benefit of avoiding a fatality”

Today you are worth a fortune because how else will they explain why they could not reel you
Back from the far waters? That the line snagged in a reef and no longer feel your tremor
Now that you are an untraceable cargo? That will change every day – they have to take stock of

Every inch of flesh you have left, weigh that against the price of demand fluctuating in the time
Taken to drift from this shore to that – just as the tides will change and you are at the mercy of
A temperamental master tossing you like the peaks and valleys of stock market graphs.

You have declared your motion sickness but that means nothing. The ship still sinks to
Leave you tussling with the sea like trying to unpeel your fingers from a tangle of
Black hair. The sick feeling rises and you can only close your eyes and fight.

You touch land again like a beached whale huffing its final moments, majestic and foul smelling.
See how that value climbs as they have yet again managed to stay afloat? Pain is a constant
Reminder that you are alive and priceless. In a soggy paper bag, they return you to your

Doorstep and your family will sweep you in and sit around a fire to piece you together. They
Will be warm again, with food in their bellies and ignorant of how terribly wet and cold it is
Outside.