by Jane Herschlag
Our guardians of value
and their Armani-suited friends
have sold their souls to the highest bidders.
They grabbed the world’s assets,
miraged them into Triple-A bonds,
sat idly by as our ballooned funds
were buffeted by currents high
above the seven seas—
bursting, dropping into turbulent waters,
unretrievable as drenched napkins.
Where have all the fighters gone?
Have we been shocked and awed
so that we, the public, lie down and cry
about 401Ks shrinking to 201Ks?
We are too busy counting pennies,
turning down our thermostats,
(if we are lucky) clutching
our re-financed life preserver
but wonder—
Lady Justice what are you weighing?
Who has put what onto your scales?
You let Paulson and his ilk
dispense billions of our dollars to banks,
no strings attached—
while the foreclosed sleep in their cars.
Lawyers, look at our boarded-up homes,
stand with us on unemployment lines,
listen to our creditors making demands
while they hold their hands out to the feds.
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Iceland and Great Britain, you have lost
more of your gardens.
Won’t you join us to plow the fields of Wall Street,
enrich its soil with ethics?
Bully In The Spotlight, Jane Herschlag’s 40 page docu-poetry chapbook is published by Pudding House Publications. Her poems are included in three anthologies and many university presses. She won eight prestigious writing awards from Hunter College and CCNY. She taught creative writing to children and adults at in Manhattan and Danbury. She curated the Open Mic reading series for the Writer’s Voice in NYC for seven years and in Danbury for one year. She has run a poetry peer group for ten years.
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