Moon and Money Poem

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Holding up a dollar, I ask the class what it is.

“Freedom,” says a Tijuana student,
“from working in a maquiladora.”

“Red money,” says a San Diego student,
“if you see past the green.”

“Cat food.” “College.” “A cheap prostitiute.”

I tell them to dig deeper.

“Paper and green ink.”

Deeper.

“Dead trees and petroleum.”

Imagine you are on the Moon
and dig way deeper.

“Symbolism that represents
interests of the symbol-makers.”

Good.

I ask who the symbol-makers are
but no one answers.

Flipping the bill,
I end with four treasonous questions:
“Who commissioned this pyramid?”
“Who built it?”
“Barring wages, what was promised
and actually paid?”