Poem 179

Back then different parts of the country also had different soft drinks – in alarmingly lurid colours … when was the last time you saw a two cent coin …

( I like the play on Swiss alps and Swiss banks … )

Off The Ice

When I was a kid you got your drinks
off the shelf or
off the ice
                  and there was two cents difference

if you ever wanted to know how much the commodity
cold was worth I could have told you
two cents
                  that was how much you stole from the river
if you sunk your bottles to chill
two cents a bottle
picked out of the wide-open pocket

those coins mounted up 
                                            the river jangled
with them mountains gripped them tightly in the sun
like Swiss banks
                              Antarctica - now there's
a cool million