Poem: Pennies In a Jar

 

Pennies In a Jar

 

copper vertebrae 

fled from rolled spines

to wallow in flecks of sun.

 

faces of a single dead man

tired of sitting on each other,

forming useless stilts and stools.

 

i dig my fingers in,

pitchfork style,

scooping the metallic hay,

 

then dribble it back down,

back into the desuetude   

of a mausoleum-silo.

 

nothing much changes

on chins with no way to age

except the rare scrape or nick.

on a slab of formica,

staid in their vitreous urn, 

maybe the clones compare tarnishes,

 

visiting each others' pillared mansions,

while patting each other on the back

with wafer-thin blades.

 

 

 

 

=======================

9/26 eds lots of eds, 'et tu' theme .. 

6/28/24... mods

"pillared" because the lincoln cent has a pillared memorial

7/30/22 major word changes

7/10/22 ... "flee their"  replaces "spill from their"  ... "a single dead" replaces "one" ... "mausoleum granary" replaces "a mausoleum of a granary" ... "age" replaces "grow old" ... "while visiting" replaces "and visit" ... blah