Some Comments On
The New Twenty Dollar Bill
The Bureau of Engraving must
Forever be alert,
All counterfeiting trickery,
It must move to subvert.
But surely in this noble task
It need not blithely flirt,
With tricks that make our currency
Look like a Dead Head shirt
The brand new twenty dollar bill
Now coming off the presses,
Short changes long tradition
While security it stresses.
Old dour and stuffy Jackson,
The last guy you’d call chichi,
Stares out at twenty holders
From a field that's tinted peachy.
In the future Andy’s bill mates
On the hundred and the fifty,
Will be likewise color coded
To deter the slick and grifty.
Though this makes us no whit richer,
Our wallets soon will glow,
‘Cause we’ll do all of our shopping
With this multi-colored dough.
At this point, you ask, why worry
And why pick this cause for weepin’?
Why lament the look of money
Feds are so intent to cheapen?
It’s because today’s mad spending
Money’s worth could truly shatter,
That a changeless look’s important—
Some illusions really matter.
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