Copper by JOHN KENDALL HAWKINS
Have You Hugged Your Copper Today?
Smithsonian mag
the other day gleed
and glissed over copper,
the age old assassin,
djinn killer of germs,
free radicals that beat
Corona’s membranes out,
like some obscure french revolution,
hooded guillotine, copperheads,
a fresh roll of coins, Viva!
A penny saved is a saving penny!
E pluribus unum, from many, one percent;
empty the coin can,
leave the upper coins,
grind the copper down
and sprinkle it liberally, radically
over your cocoa pops, and mangia
your copper blues away.
Go back to the busker,
now masked, buy back
the Lincolns you dropped
like turds in his case, while
he strummed his soul out,
“Penny For Your Thoughts,”
exchange Lincolns, give him paper,
full of germs, money, but that’s a risk
you take, when you take away his copper.
“Teen” vandals are stealing
from junk yards they sold them to,
hoods, sly eyes and tattoos,
feeding dobermans their opioids,
if they have to, there’s a silver lining,
And think re-sell, hit the market,
copper stocks have stalled —
buy, motherf**ker, buy —
And run, coz the ‘oids didn’t work.
Maybe what’s left of the Left
Should gather on Liberty Island
(if you still carry a torch for the old girl)
And reach out and touch her
(but not there, as Trump would do)
like the apes going apeshit
around the monolith in 2001.
Or, maybe, tear her down
for lifesaving keychains,
like we did the Wall in triumph,
back in the summer or was it ‘89?
I’m calling for the government —
any government will do —
to mint 400 million pennies
and to offer them up to gun holders,
a Lincoln for each gun freed,
Covid-19 and gun control in one,
Or, at least hand out copper bullets,
So those they shoot don’t get ‘rona.
It’s the humanest thing we can do.
And, goddamn it, if
you get real desperate, man,
run up to any policeman — well, okay,
walk up nonchalantly, g’day,
and give him a long loving bear hug,
and don’t, no matter how hard he clubs you,
let go of that lifesaving copper.