Accountant

by Laura Howat

Grandma’s farm ledger

Neat cursive mixture of German and English

Canadian tundra small town depression era quarter section

Every cent recorded

Sold 1 Dozen eggs                           .30

Sold 1 old chicken unplucked        .75

Sold 3 young roosters  8lb             2.00      

Sold 2 Bags Potatoes                      2.50

Milk                                                                   .14

Sold 30 lbs onions                            1.08

Bologna                                                            .40

Wurst                                                                .40

Disbursements to husband and daughters noted

August-tobacco pouch                                  .60

Gertie-busfare                                                 .40

Hildagard-Jupe                                                1.40

Grim entry December 46

Cash balance .04

Thought I became an accountant

To combat childhood chaos

Adversity score eight out of ten

Only missing two factors incarceration and addiction

Rules regulations job financial security formulas debits equal credits

But maybe it’s genetic

Or maybe I’m descended from kings

First person identified by name in history an accountant

Mesopotamia 3500 BC

Deciphered ancient Sumerian clay tablets pictographic script

Kushim

The tax collector’s importance

But now at mid-life

No matter how many times I work the calculator

Doesn’t add up

columns jumbled

lines disappeared