"Luxury: A Word Lesson for Black Youth," A Poetry Post

Luxury does not mean
purchasing a surround sound system
and a 50-inch television and
setting up an entertainment area
in the living room of your
apartment for your friends to
come over and watch the Super Bowl
once a year.

Luxury does not mean
driving a fifty-thousand-dollar car
for which you have to sacrifice eating
fresh meats and vegetables
in order to make your
monthly car note and insurance and your
annual tax payments.

Luxury does not mean
taking your tax refund every year and
going to a store of any kind,
online or off line,
to buy yourself a collection of new things
to show off to the people.

Luxury means to have extra without a cost.
Luxury means to have access without a purchase.

In a life of luxury,
you are able to drive a nice car
and enjoy it,
because you don't have to make
payments.

In a life of luxury,
you are able to host a Super Bowl party
and enjoy it,
because you have planned a portion of your
entertainment budget
to cover the event.

In a life of luxury,
you buy what you must have for business
and you have what you must have for pleasure
without hurting an ounce in your finances.

Luxury is the absence of debt.
It means nobody is calling your phone
two and three times a day
asking you to make a payment
on an account that is
about to go into
collections.

It means nobody put out an APB
to arrest you for
selling stolen or illicit goods.

It means
you can say
"I got it honest,"
and you know where your money is and
how to manage it in such a way that it
remains and grows.

Anybody that tells you
that luxury is anything else
don't know words.

Because luxury means excess,
and excess means extra,
and you can't have extra
when you owe people.

-T. D. James-Moss