Draft in the author’s style. This poem was written for Poet of Wall Street to sit beside the author’s own readings, and is waiting for the author’s review. The commentary is a working draft too.
Missus Mabel brought her savings in a biscuit tin of blue,
Every dollar that her husband saved the whole long marriage through.
She set it on my counter with her gloves and quiet grace,
And she asked me, can you keep it safe, with worry on her face.
There were products I could sell her with a fee on every turn,
And a bonus for the seller that I'd surely go and earn.
But I thought of my own mother and her tin of rainy days,
And I chose the plainest shelter and the safest of the ways.
It will not make her wealthy and it will not make me proud,
But it keeps her roof above her when the thunder's rolling loud.
For the richest trade I ever made was not upon the screen,
It was keeping Mabel's biscuit tin as safe as it had been.
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Commentary
A widow trusts an adviser with her life savings. The adviser has to choose between a bonus and her safety.
“Missus Mabel brought her savings in a biscuit tin of blue,” every dollar her husband saved. She asks, “can you keep it safe,” with “worry on her face.” The adviser could sell products “with a fee on every turn” and earn “a bonus.”
Remembering “my own mother and her tin of rainy days,” the adviser chooses “the plainest shelter and the safest of the ways.” It “keeps her roof above her,” and it becomes “the richest trade I ever made.”