1:45AM Pre-dawn. An empty gas station mini-mart. I nonchalantly lay down one us dollar in exchange for a pack of gum. That dallar bill has it's own memories though. It's early ancestors, gold, a metal like the steel that made this region Wealthy, or the tin we drink our soda out of, crode our health. Paid for with silver plated copper. And where is that gold they told you existed, when you sold your life to a cooperation to hold a piece? In a fort? By a river where a hundred years ago soldiers died to better our freedoms? Plus quickly taken and succeded generations, left a wage slave with the Freedom to spend? No there is no gold! The prison popultion is on the rise, and there is no gold. My brothers and sisters are being eaten alive and there is no gold. My sister sells her body on the street and there is no gold. Millions of our neighbors can't get enough to eat and there is no gold. My father worked 60 hours a week, for 10 years, and there is no gold. Sometimes my bill reduce me to tears, and there is no gold. Most of the population can't afford a good education, and there is no gold. Indigenous cultures have been colonized so we can go on vacation and there Is no gold. The fruit of the forest is being cut down, Where you grandmother is buried they'er building a town, Animal testing to get products out fast, Hey wait a minute was I even asked? The air we breath turns our lungs black, The food you consume makes your heart attack. But wait, maybe there's hope after all, no sorry, it's just another mall. 1:46 am I watched while the cashier picked up my doller bill, looked at the inscription And started to speak: "In God we trust" he said. I looked up, grined, and walked away. But what I wanted to say was, " I hope we have a back up plan." -Fortiori