The First Wheat Penny

The First Wheat Penny

Stamped in 1909

Rolled with 49 others

Broken apart at a bank

Given to a man with a child

Who asks if he can have me

And I was given

On the way out I’m dropped

Picked up by another

Taken to a store

My first purchase, a gum ball

From there I am covered

Lint, dirt and goo

From hundreds of pockets

Hundreds of exchanges

Oh the stories I could tell

Then one day

Dropped into a piggy bank

Packed with hundreds of others

I sit for decades

Idol and board

Then I’m twirled around

And counted

Then packed away with another 49

Again idle and bored

Then the paper is broken

I’m free again

The man shifts the pile

He picks me up

Looks me over

Examines me under a light

He smiles so hard

I think he might break.

He put me under a piece of glass

Now people come and look at me

I realize I’m not a penny anymore

After all these years

I’m a trophy

EHS 2/9/2023