Ah well, my post is late for Magpie Tales, but here it is anyway, a poem I began when looking at how weights came to be measured. I'm down in SW Ga. now with my mother, and wonder of wonders, she has broadband, so I will be able to continue my posts. Sorry this is late, but I had some stress-related symptoms last night and ended up in the ER!
An Ounce
being twenty pennyweights, I marvel
at such ancient measurements I never think of
when I weigh my cabbages at the supermarket.
Ounces and pounds, but first pennyweights
and before that, a grain--twenty-four
to be honest. No more and no less.
Pennies dropped in the piggy's slot.
Pennies from heaven. A penny for my thoughts,
which weigh nothing. I can hold in my fist
what amounts to an ounce, grubby pennies
I pour from my coat pockets onto the table.
How many grains
from my garden have I tracked
inside, so much weight in my rugs?
My dirty feet tip the scales!
