Overpriced Coffee
and Overtired
I look into my change drawer
of my pickup truck
filled with pennies

Thinking about when coffee was 5 cents
I wasn’t alive then
But I remember the Cent Sign
They taught us in elementary school
It’s nearly useless now

They don’t even make pennies out of copper anymore
The metal is worth more than the currency
If you melt pennies down
it’s a federal offense
or so I’ve been told

You’re not supposed to destroy legal tender
but you can drop pennies in the parking lot
and nobody will pick them up
Not even the homeless man begging for change

Do rules make any sense?

I think about grabbing a handful of pennies 
and dropping them on the coffee counter
demanding the shop accept all 288 of them
That is how much it costs for a cup of coffee
these days

It is a sad world when you get punished for destroying pennies
and you get punished for using pennies
the only thing you can do
is lose pennies

You can’t win!!!

I look at the donations and tips jar
People in Seattle have money to spend on overpriced coffee
and then they tip the cashiers 
Honestly, what did the people behind the counter do
to deserved another buck or two?

I eye the jar
full of 1s and 5s
There is even a 10 and a 20 in there
What do these people do for a living
to be able to throw money away?

I’m tired
and when I’m tired
my brain starts thinking of all the things it wants to do
Things I wouldn’t normally think about
This opens the creative process
but it also encourages my deviant mind

I think about stealing change from the jar
when the cashier’s back is turned
I might pay for my coffee
with the recently acquired booty

I notice all the women in the shop
and I’m checking them out
Usually I’m conservative
most people think I’m a Mormon
But today my mind is full of randy thoughts

Perspective…

that is what today is teaching me

How much time do I have
and how am I going to spend it?