212. Money

At first it will seem tame,
willing to be domesticated.

It will nest
in your pocket
or curl up in a corner
reciting softly to itself
the names of the presidents.

It will delight your friends,
shake hands with men
like a dog and lick
the legs of women.

But like an amoeba
it makes love
in secret
only to itself.

Fold it frequently;
it needs exercise.

Water it every three days
and it will repay you
with displays of affection.

Then one day when you think
you are its master
it will turn its head
as if for a kiss
and bite you gently
on the hand.

There will be no pain
but in thirty seconds
the poison will reach your heart.

Victor Contoski

I thought I'd put the poem up too, it's not that long.

-The speaker of this poem one can assume is the poet, being that no one else is mentioned. One may also believe that Contoski is speaking from the mouth of experience. There is no rhyme to the poem but that can lead to it's meaning. The role money plays in a person's life and the relationship one may build with wealth may have little rhyme or reason, however this is what makes its poison so painful. A person's lust with money can grow and grow the more they make, however, in a stock market crash, where people can lose all their money, sometimes that comes with little warning, with little rhyme or reason. Therefore I think Contoski was trying to create a poem that didn't have a rhythm par say because life also does not have a rhythm; things happen at random.

-One technique that the poet uses cleverly is personifying money. In the third stanza he refers to money having the quality to "shake hands with men and lick the legs of women". I think this is a very powerful line. By giving money human qualities, Contoski gives money power. By giving money power, Contoski gives money the ability to overtake a human... its "master". I drew that money, personified, may also be referencing the greed living and breathing within all of us. We are the reasons we become so attached to money. Money is not, in reality, a living thing. Therefore, by personifying it Contoski may be saying that the evil money can cause is only able to do such by living through us.

Another literary device Contoski uses is simile. Money is ... "like a dog" and "like an amoeba it makes love in secret only to itself". I think that smile is used well in the poem. By using the dog reference, money appears to be "domesticated" like an animal, under the control of the human who has the power. However comparing money to an amoeba in the next stanza makes the reader very aware that this isn't some domesticated creature that is subject to the control of others. More so money or greed is an organism that functions on its own, replicating and growing stronger until it consumes you.

-I really liked this poem. One could probably assume that because I chose it for my blogs, however it really made me consider the question of "can money buy happiness?" To me, this answer is no. I don't think that superficial things can bring happiness... but this is solely my opinion. I liked the poem though because I believe Contoski agreed with me. Money, while you may seem to have it under control can amount to greed, and this greed can consume a person. I think that money if not used wisely is a root to all evil. The ending of this poem I thought was very good. "There will be no pain... [but] the poison will reach your heart". I liked this so much because I feel that this is how greed corrupts a person. They can't feel it but it consumes them, and the poison that comes with it will reach your heart, symbolic for the soul of a person.