The Rat Captains

The brazen and self-anointed
Captains of Finance
Have led the fleet aground on the shoals
They were so sure that they knew
The lay of every land and sea
From the maps they read in school:
To build software systems,
To govern a state,
They boasted they can sail quickly through
Into every port
With their magic Return on Equity quadrant


They claimed the treasure of the calm
Without a thought of storms or risk:
Heedless of hazards,
Blind to the lighthouses,
For none of these are marked
On the business school maps
Only the black X's for quick profits
Stashed in the hold for them to grab
When their ships go down
Confounding the pie charts they leave behind
The pie rats desert their sinking ships


Lugging their loot to a tax-deserted island
Over the bodies of the public on the deck
Fallen cold and dead
Last questions of rights unanswered
Except by laughing scorn and mocking song:


O suckers, My suckers!
Your fateful trip is done.
Your dreams are wrecked upon the shore.
Your money I have won.



Copyright © 2008 by C. P. Klapper