Archer Street Coin Con
If you find a coin on the street
it’s perfectly fine to pick it up
(that’s the consensus on Reddit)
and stumbling on a flash of gold
on the footpath on Archer Street
I look from side to side
aware of onlooking eyes
as I bend to pick up the dollar
and what a joke -
the coin is flush with the path
neatly set in the concrete.
my ears bloom bright to poinsettias
as I wonder if it’s a cheeky prank
by the tradies who laid the path -
Let’s press a buck in there, fellas
Pull a fast one on passers by, hehe!
like a permanent installation of a gag
and I contemplate the odds of a coin
falling face up in wet concrete.
dusting my knee, I tug at my boots
pretending to tie laces
(on a shoe which has none)
feeling as though all of Archer Street
is an audience at a stand-up
and I quickly walk forward
pausing at the corner, looking back
to find sucker number God-knows-what
on one knee, feeling the coin
the same brand of foolishness
spreading across his face.
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is a Sydney based
artist, poet, and pianist. She holds a Masters in English. Oormila has
exhibited her art and accompanying poetry in Kuwait, India, Singapore, and
Australia. She is a member of Sydney’s North Shore Poetry Project and Authora
Australis. Her recent works have been published in Red Eft Review, Glass
Poetry Journal’s Poets Resist, Eunoia Review, Underwood Press’ Rue Scribe, The
Maier Museum of Art’s Journal of Ekphrastic, Plum Tree Tavern and The
Rye Whiskey Review. She has poems forthcoming in the Rat’s Ass Review.
Oormila regularly performs her poetry and exhibits her art at shows in Sydney.
Tags:
Poetry