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SHEPHERD'S PURSE

Poverty Weed or Beggar Tick,
some days in the field
are leaner than others.

Let the stalk be strong,
the flower head high
and the seedbox full--

November like a tax collector
will come to the poor,
the cut and the shaken,

with nothing to save
but their paper mittens
and a straw whistle.

In a time of hard money
keep a small purse,
spend little.

Be sure to have more
than one heart,
and you may survive.

John Haines is the author of The Stars, the Snow, the Fire (1989) and New Poems 1980-88 (1990), which received the Lenore Marshall/Nation prize for poetry.