Silver Dollars

I might have been rich
Had I bothered last fall
To harvest the abundance before me
I could have had it all

All the silver dollars
Their silvery roundish shapes
Hanging from stiff stalks
Fluttering in the wind's wake

Last fall they were whole
Beautiful and metallic and true
Holding a few seeds each
I at least could have picked some for you

To use as a decoration
For as I've noted more than once
It's what my mother once did
Gracing her table, mantle or sconce

I could have gathered them all to myself
Piled them high in my room
Counted them to my heart's content
Till I was dwarfed in the gloom

Piles of silver dollars
All mine for the taking
Now tattered in the spring sun
Shown for what they are no faking

Perhaps in a couple years
When they come out again
I'll watch for their green disks in the yard
To turn silver and white with the fall
And even then not taking them all
So they may seed sprout and grow
To dazzle others with their dollar glory
Though to be money they only pretend