Equivalency

Everything bears a cost,
Not merely a price to be tossed.
For every gain we seek to host,
Something else must be lost.

To earn the coin, we toil,
Sweat upon the soil.
For respect to be our lot,
We must act in ways that are not forgot.

To hold goods within our grasp,
We part with coins that clasp.
When gains are made, yet nothing's spent,
The scale tips – it's not what nature meant.

For each thing gained without a toll,
Disrupts the balance of the whole.
We must reckon with the cost,
For nothing comes without exhaust.

Even the things we can't appraise,
Carry weights in unseen ways.
Indeed, even life, with all its might,
Comes with its cost, not always in sight.