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 CHANGE by Barry Tebb 
						As milled silver I was welcome
 In every gutter, tinkling over cobbles
 
 I rang the truth loudly on solid-oak counters
 
 And tills tolled for me clear as bells.
 
 
 
 Boldly I gave myself to many,
 
 Slipped from moist palm to pocket,
 
 Pirouetting without points, jingling
 
 With dull coppers and important keys.
 
 
 
 First I was lost in a hundred
 
 Children’s essays, found myself
 
 With pearls in secret pockets,
 
 Counterfeit and shiny.
 
 Then I discovered in a deed-box,
 
 Frowned over as I beamed a dusty smile
 
 Of centuries, polished till I pierced the fondness
 
 Nastily, with a sickly yellow glare.
 
 My smooth face made the end easy;
 
 I piled up with the rest, counted and
 
 Columned, exchanging memories
 
 In a sudden hot flood of death.
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