Cents and Sensibility

Coins on the Floor

If I saw dropped cents,
how many times would I scoop
up a coin? Plenty,

when I was a lad
(ones, twos, fives, I’d grab ’em all—
the wont was thrifty);

but you know that you’re
growing old when you won’t stoop
down for a twenty.

Now, with a bad back,
I must leave coins where they fall—
even that fifty.


in alteris verbis

Manete nummi,
ego vos relinquam, ne
laedar a vobis.

[Stay where you are, coins;
I leave you on the ground lest
I be hurt by you.]


It Always Comes Back to Politics

Now, I’ll be accused
of conservatism for
a dislike of change.

Conservatism,
when things are so screwed, might be
obligatory.