Wealth

Sometimes, when you're turning 
coats or pants pockets inside out
before doing the laundry, you find

change—even small wads of bills
creased and folded from whatever
original errand they were used for

at the store. It's like receiving un-
expected windfall, though you might 
also look around furtively to make sure 

no one thinks you're taking what isn't 
yours. See, you're the type who's never 
had the privilege of being able to play 

with the intricacies of this thing 
called investment. How easy some
people make it sound: Oh you just 

put a little extra money away into your 
portfolio, and next time you look, it's 
doubled or tripled. When your insurance 

agent asks if you know how much your
retirement account must be worth today, 
you stammer. Your grandfather, in the last

years of his life, could at least say he owned 
one carabao, a yard full of roosters and hens,  
some mango and coconut trees, a little 

plot of farmland. You wonder what 
he'd say if asked how much his field 
would yield this year, next year, 

the next. What his hand sowed, 
his hand reaped unless the wind 
and rain took more than their share.