THE MONEY MEN

The spinning world requires it
an endless, vast supply
and your choice becomes to do without
or satisfy its cries.

You bend your back to earn it
and do what ‘er you can
to toil and sweat and grind it out,
bring coins to the Money Men.

The Money Men are hungry
though they eat three times each day
and never are they troubled
by things they do or say.

Not troubled by the poverty
or homeless folk that stand
along the highway exits
human blight across the land.

What will it take to get the rich
to fully understand
it’s their paltry wages and lack of care
that cripple other men?

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Karen Warinsky has authored four collections including Dining with War (2023 Alien Buddha Press), and her new release Beauty & Ashes (Kelsay Books 2025). Her poem “Mirage” won first place in the 2024 Ekphrastic Poetry Trust, she is a Best of the Net nominee and a former finalist of the Montreal International Poetry Contest. Her work appears in numerous anthologies including Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands, Mizmor Anthology, Ms Aligned 4 and many journals including The Naugatuck River Review, Silkworm and Light. Her poems have also appeared in Worcester Magazine, The New Verse News, and in E-zines including Blue Heron, Circumference, Consilience and Wordpeace. Find her at karenwarinskypoetry.wordpress.com.