The impact of a dollar upon the heart <br />Smiles warm red light, <br />Sweeping from the hearth rosily upon the white table, <br />With the hanging cool velvet shadows <br />Moving softly upon the door. <br /> <br />The impact of a million dollars <br />Is a crash of flunkeys, <br />And yawning emblems of Persia <br />Cheeked against oak, France and a sabre, <br />The outcry of old beauty <br />Whored by pimping merchants <br />To submission before wine and chatter. <br />Silly rich peasants stamp the carpets of men, <br />Dead men who dreamed fragrance and light <br />Into their woof, their lives; <br />The rug of an honest bear <br />Under the feet of a cryptic slave <br />Who speaks always of baubles, <br />Forgetting state, multitude, work, and state, <br />Champing and mouthing of hats, <br />Making ratful squeak of hats, <br />Hats.<br /><br />Stephen Crane<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-impact-of-the-dollar-upon-the-heart/
