Classic Poem

The young gentleman from the foreign nation
Sat on the sofa and smiled.
He stayed for two hours and I talked to him.
He answered agreeably,
He was very precise, very graceful, very enthusiastic.
I thought:
Is it possible that there are no nations, only individuals?
That it is the few who give gold and flowers,
While the many have only copper
So worn that even the stamp is obliterated?
I talked to the young gentleman from the foreign nation,
And the faint smell of copper assailed my nostrils:
Copper,
Twisted copper coins dropped by old women
Into the alms-boxes of venerable churches.