The power of the penny is much diminished

its future in finance pretty well finished

one stares at me from a bunch of change

with its good eye looking up

as it to say I promise to pay

when the idea brings a smile of pity

like a refugee from a beggar's cup. 

 

It's name perhaps will guarantee

a place in fiscal eternity

as an epitaph for a toilet's access

serving the lady as well as the gent

in a dim and distant urgency,

even the pound is considered unsound

transmuted from paper, too easily spent.