1000 Paper Franklins
'Twas a most unusual day
For a most unusual boy
In the morning he went out to play
For riding his bike was his joy
On the new streets that cut in the woods
A car on the side of the road
A man threw something in the brush
What kind of ill did forbode?
Another car came from the distance
Men scuffled, both cars drove away
The boy watched unnoticed from the corner
His life changed forever that day
For off in the brush was a briefcase
No one saw him carry it home
He put it under his bed just in case
Down that street he ne'er again roam
In the case 1000 Federal Reserve Notes
Each one with a picture of Ben
He kept it his solitary secret
And looked at it every now and then
The bills had a most random nature
Some worn, some had never been folded
He never let on of his possession
For he knew he would surely be scolded
He'd been taught that to save was a virtue
Though only ten in that year of '72
He was already thinking of the future
And thought money would carry him through
As years passed he kept to his secret
Not a car or some college did he buy
It became almost an obsession
Though I'm not really sure at all why
But keep it he did for a decade
Then another ten years after that
And another ten years out of habit
Til a new Millenia begat
Now he thought it a time for a reckoning
An accounting, a taking of stock
A man's, not a boy's, needs were beckoning
And oh was he in for a shock
He'd held fast that to save was a virtue
He thought himself disciplined and wise
But in calculating everything's prices
He learned of a nasty surprise
What once would buy so many houses
Would now be a down payment on one
Once a dozen new Caddies afforded
His sullen depression begun
What in the hell here had happened?
In less than half a lifetime
He once was a boy filled with riches
Not a middle-class Man in his prime
And thus is the moral of the story
How crime organized does pay
The trick is the Government's sanction
And to steal just a little each day
stephenhurleysmith
4feb2007
