This poem uses a twenty-dollar bill as a startling metaphor for economic inequality and human value. The first scene shows a billionaire losing a twenty, which is to him “less than dust in a room of gold”. He doesn’t even notice the loss.
The scene shifts dramatically to those for whom the twenty dollars holds infinite meaning. For a mother, it is the devastating choice between “Milk or bread, not both”. For a single father, it’s the eight dollars needed for antibiotics to stop a child’s fever. The poem concludes that the bill’s worth is defined entirely by the necessity of the hands it falls into.
- A billionaire loses a twenty;
- it slips from his pocket,
- flutters onto a marble floor,
- and he doesn’t notice.
- To him,
- it’s nothing,