Quarter Life

There was a wind, an arctic frost
Across the earthen plane
Through dark black clouds the heaven’s tossed
A chilling, icy rain

So lost a soul stood in this land
Of ancient humankind
And held a coin within a hand
A seldom, age-graced find

It had a dull, yet silver hue
Wet, tarnished on an edge
So rare, select, there were but few
Whose beauty it would match

It held an eagle by design
A regal beast of flight
And vaguely, worn away by time
A face was on one side

It must have been a human male
The nose and chin were clear
But looking close there was a tail
A hairstyle strange and queer

And words, which read “In God We Trust”
The scholar’s heart did race
A piece of faith, beneath the rust
Believes of ancient days

He wrapped the coin with love and care
And beamed back to the ship
With teams of specialists to share
The bounty of his trip

Here it was polished to the shine
Mythology revealed
In words and details of design
The stories it concealed

Leaped forth like brilliant colored tales
With help of a machine
Which made it speak and then unveil
The worlds which it had seen

“My name is Quarter, I has born
In nineteen sixty five
Rolled up in paper, like the norm
I started out my life

Inside a dark and armored truck
Which parked and made its stops
Outside of banks, and then what luck
Outside a mall of shops

That’s where I first saw light of day
And female fingernails
Which fumbled freely with the pay
Of yet another sale

I landed deftly, with a clink
Inside a leather purse
The smell was awful, what a stink
From then on it got worse

As I would soon find that machines
Were doomed to be my fate
A public phone came on the scene
And then it was too late

I slid right through a tiny slot
And landed on my face
Where others crowded and much rot
Was found in every space

I tried to take it as it came
When suddenly there fell
A bunch of nickels, what a shame
The breathing room from hell

But fortune had it that a man
Came by to bring fresh air
Then scooped us up and in a van
Took us from here to there

And soon I learned that paper wraps
Were also part of life
For right and left there sat some chaps
Yet no one had a wife

There was no time for social games
Mine was a life of chance
A silver shine my claim to fame
No hope for some advance

And oops there went another one
The video beeped loud
A little wee one having fun
Amidst the weaving crowds

I spend some days amongst the fair
In pockets, purses, vests
I paid for pony rides – the air
It was the freshest yet

I was the butter on the bread
The sprinkles on the ice
The hotdog bun with extra fat
And one more game of dice

So many fingers, big and small
Some sweaty and some dry
That lingered rarely, if at all
To spend me on a buy

The fair days waned and the machines
Were wearing me quite thin
The vending slots and all those teens
Who used me just to win

Another cheap and ugly toy
A pile of plastic junk
An instant pic of girl and boy
In love – and oh so drunk

The parking meters were a treat
The officers were nice
One let me drop into the street
A stop in paradise

The nights were cool, the days were warm
And street lights never fade
So many feet of every form
Roamed by the place I laid

Yet no one seemed to watch the ground
Though teams and hoards went by
‘Till wee feet kicked me with a sound
There grinned a little boy

He picked me up and gave a cheer
“Look Mommy, I found cash”
“Don’t pick up trash, my little dear”
She took me and then splash

I landed in a fountain cold
The bottom painted blue
Through waving waters could behold
A most distorted view

How ugly humans looked from here
Their faces matched their feet
They peered with greet from ear to ear
What race, what funny breed

And so the decades came and went
Machines were still in style
And human kind was bend to spend
At least for quite a while

Until the day the heaven’s fell
Upon the earth so fair
From then on there was naught to sell
And no one gave a care

About the many coins that lay
Amongst the ruins deep
And waited for this distant day
To wake from frozen sleep

My name is Quarter, was a slave
My masters died in vain
By chasing riches to their graves
And playing silly games

They did not see my worth was such
That I would speak for them
They did not know that you would touch
This silver, shining gem”

With this the quarter ceased to speak
The scholars closed the log
And on this day joined the antiques
The human catalogue