we once trusted God’s grace
and Abraham Lincoln’s face.
Stamped on the front side
of pennies hundreds of billions
of times, in bright copper
alloyed with zinc until
three grams of copper
was worth more than a cent.
Now they are a thin copper
plating over 97.5 percent zinc.
Like the gilded toilets and sinks
that adorn the president’s
residence in Florida and
Manhattan. He loves the glitter
believes that it hides
the dank sewage pumped
from the sump to the gutter
of his diseased mind.
One can find gold-plated
commemorative coins
with a raised clenched fist
and the slogan fight fight fight
on the reverse side of the coin.
Available on Etsy for $21.99
plus shipping. Discounted soon
to six dollars and sixty-six cents.
I’ve still got a jar full of pennies
on my desk, some are real copper
the brightest but lightest ones
are ersatz. Perhaps some day
they could be melted and reformed
into something useful.
Like the swords into plowshares
and spears into pruning hooks
as the prophet Isaiah foretold.
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