Pennies

Pennies

In buying items at the store,

A question that’s come up before…

I hand the cash, expect the change —

Increasingly, a question strange

Is asked of me (a different tack):

“Do you, sir, want four pennies back?”

(As if they’re scarcely worth the pause,

The trouble that they seem to cause.)

Before I answer (thus I say)

Let’s put this all another way:

If say, of cash I’ve tendered, see,

And four cents short I hap to be —

The item, would you let me buy?

“Of course not!” blurts the clerk. But why?

So here’s your answer, quite compact:

Of course I want the pennies back.