(Poem) The Travels of a Wayward Penny

[Morrighan]

<b>The Travels of a Wayward Penny</b>

Bright copper, I used to be,
Newly minted and shiny.
1996, Denver mint.
Laying on the whirling assembly line,
In the midst of newly gifted contemplation,
Suddenly
Packaged into a little roll with my brothers and sisters,
And onward I traveled.

Somehow I ended up in a store,
Quickly became part of the change for a candy bar ?
A super-sized Milky Way bar, I believe.
I traveled in the boy?s pocket
Until I landed in the washer, a forgotten trifle.
Eventually, his mother found me
And used me to buy a leather coat,
Pretty as can be.

I languished in a Sears? cash register
For an unknown amount of time.
Passed time idly,
Conversing with the other coins and paper bills.
Tales of far-reaching adventures and harrowing escapes,
Yarns of decades gone by,
A living anthology of eras come and gone.
Yet we could never settle the rivalry between the coins and the bills.

Then out of my exile,
And into some shopper?s pocket.
The year had suddenly become 2000 ?
Four years had passed? Four precious years?
In a cash register?
All the things that I could have experienced!
But alas,
I am just a penny.