JOSH WILSON

What is the soul’s coin?
by Josh Wilson

What is the soul’s coin?
Borne in a wallet of leather
Pale or brown by degree
Traded for bread and favors
For dreams dreamt for us
Of our own hearts’ desires
Embanked now and multiplied
By strange alchemies and alloys mixed
By math and incantation
By sorcerers and cultists praying
Before their fetish
Painting their lips
With prosperity’s gory stain
Counting each droplet and distillation
Wrung from bodies wracked and wire-taut
From beating hearts and minds afire
Ablaze and a-burning
This forge, this refinery, this mint condition
This soul’s coin, a simple currency
I’m buying
I’m driven
I’ve got something to trade in.

Josh Wilson is a San Francisco journalist and editor. He is a co-founder of Independent Arts & Media and publisher of The-Fabulist.org.