penny

for an old Advent song

Christmas is coming
and I hope the fat goose
is rescued
and the old man
gets at least
two pennies in the hat
and
God bless you
the goose
the man
the Cratchits
(vegetarian)
and you

c l couch

Christmas is coming;
the goose is getting fat.
Please to put a penny
in the old man’s hat.

If you haven’t a penny,
a ha’penny will do;
If you haven’t a ha’penny,
then God bless you!

(an old, famous, English doggerel—more antique-feeling, at least in these parts, with the extinction of the penny)

photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash
Back of a union shield penny.


the USA penny
(for Lincoln’s birthday on the twelfth of February)

it is our first coin

it is ubiquitous

it is
of course
an honor

that goes both ways
in that
we might be honored to
carry him
say
in a purse or
in a pocket near the hip
or thigh

and should we
change
well
our change
when we’ve decided that we
don’t have to say
ninety-nine to avoid
calling
the next dollar up

maybe
the penny will go out
to the darkness
on the pages
inside
of
numismatists

we’ll carve his imagine onto
a greater coin or
print him
on a bill of altitudinous
value

or find
some way
still everywhere to have him
near
remembering 
by what credit he may
own
(and
does)
the nation that
should be
ours
all
of ours
all

and so maybe toward
a virtuous
such an integral
legacy
as well

c l couch


photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash 
penny floor tiling at the Maven Hotel
Denver, Colorado (USA)

yesterday I posted a poem for Presidents Day (USA), which for some reason I thought was yesterday and not a week from then; well, if you’re looking for something for the day, now you’ll be ready—and sorry