by Stephanie K. Merrill
You know those dudes--the same two hundred men--
Wall Street dealmakers elegantly wasted,
climbing New York towers, landing hotel rooms with pagoda mirrors.
They play fetch but never scrabble;
the most important games are not their problems.
For the rest of us now it's time to worry--
the school cafeteria has more intelligence than the classroom.
Flint glass patterns freeform on churlish green walls
while outside looters fist through trees whose branches
have been trembling for years warning of a foie gras crisis.
There had never been a goose bearing golden eggs--
just celebrity look-alikes speaking Lady Gaga lingo.
Stephanie K. Merrill lives in Chicago; she teaches English literature and writing to high school students.
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