more than a cent

found a penny on the floor

today

don’t know how it got there

1947

with the olive branches

opposite lincoln’s bust

upside down on the other side

copper

worn to dark brown

how many hands have held it?

if it could talk

what would it say?

would it tell

confirm what i imagine,

the kids who bought penny candy

with it

the hundreds,

or was it thousands

who held it,

the ones who made change

for exchange

the ones who saved it

for a rainy day

then set it free

for trade

the times it tossed

in the air flipping fast

landing head or tails

to determine an outcome

had it been across the oceans

pacific or atlantic?

in whose pockets had it been?

in those of the deceased,

perhaps,

carried for how long?

’til when?

only to somehow land on my floor

shall i keep it?

ending its journey,

here in my home,

or shall i send it

on another journey

cashing it in

from hand to hand

store to store

serving to settle accounts

with its minute

but powerful authority

granted it

by the united states of america

will it someday land in landfill

or some misplaced spot?

like some of its kin

will it lie buried lost

’neath the land?

decaying over millennia

back to it mineral form

impregnated with other metals

in the ground

back to its bluish green of color

waiting recovery by some prospector,

or will it amalgamate

at the hand of God's mighty

nature machine

to a molten lava state

then from the ground,

our future race

to discover its essence

as elementally dissolved,

it copper mineral state

and

used as an essential nutrient

for organic living things

living then

whether flora or fauna

consider,

but one other form

of value,

of its worth,

shelved in some museum

or preserved

by those willing

to pay

100 million times over

its original price

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/1943-cent-sells-for-1-million-3970349