Anything below a dollar
A fifty-cent coin lies
in a shallow drain
dipped in spit, mud
and cigarette butts;
a ten-cent coin fallen
between a water pipe
and wall grows mossy
blue and green and dull;
a five-cent coin sinks
to the bottom of a
toilet bowl where flushes
will never flush it away;
those who lost them say
it’s no big deal, not worth
the trouble of rescuing
from the disgusting places
of filth, disease,
decomposition.
It’s far more common to see:
one-cent copper colored coins
lying on a clean street,
trampled on unnoticed;
even if they have been noticed,
at the instant of recognition
for how little they represent,
they are walked over,
passed over, not worth
any kind of trouble at all.