Paper Gold for Paper People

by Dani McLaughlin

You can watch your scattered dreams
Flutter out of your reach.
Like the crippled butterflies they are,
They sing,
They scream.

Relief is what you seek;
A golden cup with a golden cure,
And an equally golden price.

Why do we base our lives in gold?
Cheap paper for cheap goods,
Cheap paper for cheap labor,
Cheap paper for cheap love.
We fill our pockets and our hearts with this cheap paper,
Tokens of supposed gold locked away in a safe,
Our lives dictated by its ever changing value.

A floating number for a sinking nation,
A million eyes following the value fluctuation.
So enamored by their fake gold they are blind to the water.
The water’s up to their ankles,
Their knees,
Their throats.
But let me tell you something:
“They ALL float down here...”,
When thrown into water they learn how to swim,
And the ones who don’t,
Well,
We never have to see them again.