SERVICE
Payment
We pay too much with money, pay
Our debts with gold, and only gold—
Bestow a purse and turn away,
And think that song is bought and sold.
A queen paid Shakespeare for his wit,
And thought that was the end of it.
We pay too much with money, deem
A dollar can discharge a debt,
Or buy a dress, or buy a dream,
Perhaps a spray of mignonette.
The deft designer, what of her?
And who can pay a gardener?
We must pay money, and pay more—
The sustenance for daily need,
And then the larger payment for
The beauty dreamed, the planted seed—
With service pay for service, give
The larger things by which we live.
Each has his gift and each his art
That men for others must employ;
We must contribute each his part
To make the universal joy—
With service pay for service, pay
Each in his own, his destined, way.
—Douglas Malloch.