Two Sides Of A Coin Poem by Dulan Kumarasiri

From the sand and dirt, a man was born
Another one in his mother's hold
One was treated with pain and scorn
The other was seldom controlled

One was kept in a golden cage
And asked 'when can I be free? '
He was kept in a false stage
And they let him dance with glee

The other was lost and forgotten
In an endless sea
A boy born terribly misbegotten
A piece of debris

One rose to power, the other crawled to it
Down in the deep, the other cultivated
With no hope, yet refused to submit
While one became ever more hated

One was but one of many
Who wore hands of gold
and held buckets of plenty
since the days of old

The other was but one of many
Who wore hands of trash
And hands lovingly beheld a penny
And whose gospel was cash

One was all alone
He was friends with metals on his own
The other had comrades
One had masquerades

'Could the golden rimmed mirror
Make the person more beautiful? '
He asked with his voice queerer
The reflection's reply is truly disputable

One had spectacular opulence
The other had a treasure he never could
Beheld a world that he never would
Though there was seldom difference

The many other would eventually purloin
One starved and the other dined
They were two sides of the same coin
One rusted, the other shined.