Money. AKA …

Like death and politics, money is an awkward topic. I write a lot of poetry; so what intrigues me about money, is the language we use to distance ourself from it, even though it is the raw nerve of our everyday existence.

Dough. Bread. Shekels. Moolah. Having so many words for ‘money’ is one way we sanitise our preoccupation with it. Dinero. Brass. Mazuma. Spondulicks. But that’s the tip of the iceberg.

We say that money isn’t everything. And as true as we all know that is, can I just say … it’s more important to us than we care to admit? I can … thank you.

Money is fascinating. It has no intrinsic value whatsoever. Think about it. Silver or gold coins and elaborately printed pieces of paper only have value because we all agree that they do. Otherwise they would just exist along with other lifeless, inanimate objects - ‘not worth the paper they’re printed on’!