"one cent" a poem in free verse
Today, I found a penny from 1939,
by chance, I read the back it said, "one cent."
It was the year my dad was born, wings formed bent.
Here I am,
heaven sent me an angel,
or three as the case may be,
in the land of wonder,
on sunsets of full moons,
that realize the harvest of joy,
shaken from the lemon tree.
In 1939 when lemonade cost a penny,
the simple life of pleasures,
from just, "one cent," came a plenty.
The Chinese food man thanked me with a bow after presenting me with a fortune cookie that read,
"Joy comes from adventure today. Time to shake the world."
In the golden realm of a lifetime that in reality was worth, "one cent."
Laid on the train tracks waiting for the train to flatten and expand existence,
to smooth the ridged indentations that gripped character.
That had become filled with the grime left from the many hands that had tarnished the shiny copper penny, now dull.
As the conductor chants, "all aboard," the whistle blows the steam. The reality of joy of another ride around the park.
In an instant at full steam compressed steal lays the penny tossed from the tracks.
Then shaken in a rock tumbler to a shiny new polish,
"heaven."
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:04 min read
- 13 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAAXBCDXXCCXC XX AXDBXXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,139 |
Words | 222 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 2, 8 |
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""one cent" a poem in free verse" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/63691/"one-cent"-a-poem-in-free-verse>.
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