Tag: money

poetry

Vote No on Redtail Ridge

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Vote No on Redtail Ridge

money is energy
two people tell me this week
it feels like magic

there’s dark magic and white magic
people told me in Ireland
this feels like dark energy

can I launder it?
push it toward the light?
toward working for good?

Redtail Ridge: hard to know
which side to vote for –
a no vote says yes to what?

but when you follow the money
it’s clear to see:
no is yes to more restraint

yes is no to rethinking what we want next
now that the world has changed:
no is the road to a new map –

let’s draw it

poetry

the penny dish: a dream I hope to awake to

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the penny dish: a dream I hope to awake to

Based on a prompt by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

back in the days of cash money
greenbacks soft as cotton
or crisp as pressed trousers
coins that made your palms smell of ore
and that ever-present jingle in my father’s restless pocket

often at the register you’d find
a small shallow dish
sometimes with an invitation:
need a penny? take one
have a penny? leave one
or something along those straightforward lines

never did I see someone
dump the whole plate into their handbag
or rake their fist through the copper discs
and clench them all triumphantly

worth next-to-nothing, no one coveted them
and no one stockpiled them
no one tried to shovel their
leaky bucket full of cents

no, people stuck to being reasonable.
they showed restraint
and took only what they needed.
they had sense.

poetry

twice the bang for my buck

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twice the bang for my buck

for one year
I’ve been reading Howard Zinn with friends
slogging through endless accounts
of the machine’s extreme indifference
grappling with the incalculable odds anyone is up against
when demanding decency
getting schooled in
the countless pretenses for war

it’s been a hard go
but here’s what I’ve gathered:
oppose war always
support unions unequivocally
demand accountability
take care of one another
hope is all we have

today the United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union Local 7
sent my donated Hardship money back
saying since the strike was short and sweet
they don’t need it after all
but, since I managed to part with it once,
they invite the 850 of us who gave
$55,000 total
to send those dollars right back out again
to others in need

I tear up and grin when I read this –
this is how Zinn and I believe
we are supposed to live:
taking what we need
giving back the rest
helping someone else
when our ledger’s in the black

I surely don’t do enough
keep way too much for my hypothetical rainy day
but this time I’m so glad
to let this money work its magic twice

now these ones and zeroes are snaking
their way through cyberspace
ready to be a drop in the bucket
a Marshall Fire survivor needs

poetry

Arfak economics

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Arfak economics

mountain people
stay in the mountains
eat from the forest
climb steep tracks
as a matter of course

the cool air and mist
slip down the sheer green slopes
refresh and energize
and, not stifled by midday swelter
not prostrated by unending sun
the busy people shake their heads:
in the lowlands a man grows only bananas
trades this food for money
takes the money to the store
trades it for food –
why doesn’t he just
grow a garden instead?

this mountain man goes on:
in 1990
someone gave me money
I didn’t know what it was
so I brought it to the church
asked do you know what to do with this?
yes they said
yes, we do