Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Mint Tokens

I trust in you to know what I meant
though all I gave you was a mere token.

A teabag full of faded peppermint
shares my pocket with an old subway token.

When the field is cleared and the herbs are taken
they sell mulch made from the remains of mint.

The fairground is littered with discarded tokens,
edged with the fragrance of trampled mint.

You won't spend more than a precious minute
contemplating the road not taken

and yet hope springs like summertime mint
around every real or imagined token.

Like moonshine dreams of commercial tokens
brand-new quarters roll out of the mint.

--for Big Tent's odd word-couple prompt. I got "mint" and "token" from Watch Out 4 Snakes' random word generator.
Collection available! Knocking from Inside

8 comments:

Stan Ski said...

Clever coupling - You covered a lot of ground.

Anonymous said...

I love the form of this. You have been very inventive.

mareymercy said...

Great idea for a poem starter - love the whole idea of 'mint tokens.'

Deb said...

Terrific way to make this work! I so like mint/meant & all it conveys. The ideas of trash/compost is great.

Mory said...

great poem. i too like the mint at the end of every line. very creativity.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

What a fun poem, a great idea! I wish I could be in Portland to hear you read....

Unknown said...

There's so much I like about this poem I don't know where to begin. No wonder you win awards!

Anonymous said...

got a good chuckle from the stretch for minute.