I have not taken a donkey from a single one of them
Back in the day
donkeys were like pennies.
And if you’re reading this in the future
(and how can you not be reading this
in the future, as I’m writing this
in the present) you should know
that pennies are regarded as
the smallest possible amount of currency
(if you even have currency in the future.
You’ve probably moved to bitcoin;
or maybe some other digital form of
getting what you want, that your grandparents
didn’t want to bother learning about because they
grew up with bitcoin and why did it have to change?)
[and furthermore, how bold of me to imagine
anyone is reading what I’ve written in the future.])
Anyways, Moses didn’t think donkeys were
worth much, and that even if they were worth
anything, he hadn’t taken a single one of them
from the men regarded as his inveterate foes
and therefore, those two (Dathan and Abiram
if you’re a names person) should get bupkis.
So they got nothing and, attention people
of the future! I’m hear to tell you that a donkey
or a penny, or a single bit of bitcoin, or whatever
you have now in your miraculous future
which I hope still has oxygen and trees,
may no the worth much; but if you invest that
first donkey, or put it in a donkey savings account
soon you’ll have a second donkey, and,
if you know your mammals, that could lead to
many, many more donkeys, and you could
someday be the richest donkey person
in all the land. That’s my wish for you.
In the mean time, I got to use the word
donkey ten times in a poem so I’m
feeling pretty rich myself.