Pass the Buck [Today's News Poem, March 24, 2010]

Pass the Buck [Today's News Poem, March 24, 2010]
“Bank of America Corp. said it would offer more borrowers reductions in their mortgage-loan balances in the latest twist on efforts to avert foreclosures.”
--James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal, MARCH 24, 2010, 4:45 P.M. ET
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703312504575141763259183050.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

If only I could slip away,
If only greed led one astray,
I wouldn't feel the need to hide
From evils no good man abides.

An age of war could plant the guilt
On individuals who spilt
Their foes and made survivors slaves.
Yet now, a murder's fractions shave

Accountability: a hedge
Against the blame, to drive a wedge
Between the loot and self-esteem,
So soccer moms can drive their teams

To victory, without a pang—
Despite her side: the winning gang.
Attached to everything we gain,
Is suffering—another's pain

Is passed to us, along with bucks
We pass again. The cycle sucks
The blame for every single deed:
We cash the check of theft's proceeds

And blame the banks, or plutocrats—
Republicans or Democrats—
Instead of blaming our small role
In tragedy, to sate our goals.

Statistics chart the data map:
The graphs are types of people-traps.
A lattice of professionals
Combined in one processional

Are blameless one, but guilty all:
And likewise too, the working thrall.



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Paean to Zero

Paean to Zero [Today's News Poem, March 9, 2010]

““How many people would like a proposal that holds insurance companies more accountable?””
--President Obama, quoted by Helene Cooper and David M. Herszenhorn, The New York Times, March 8, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/policy/09health.html?hpw

“The Senate on Tuesday cleared a hurdle to extending unemployment benefits and health-care subsidies for the jobless until year's end, the latest modest bipartisan success on jobs and the economy.”
--Naftali Bendavid, The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704784904575111932101937268.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Enumerate the many traits
Of zero: emptiness we count.
A means to lock the many rates
Of nothing into meaning's mount.

A decimal to part the naught
From value. Commas place the rank
Of triplet nothings—lined-up aughts—
That, with some law, can fund a bank.

A dead soul fetches something still—
And better that we never pay
What's sure to be a deadly bill.
And best? The debt for kids at play

Right now, will teach them gratitude
In ways a kid can get: we're first!
Don't coddle them, bad attitudes
Are made by sating whiny thirsts.

A promise made of nothing keeps
So long as faith remains its worth
Is more than discrete parts; it leaps
From voids, to banks, to shipping berths.

The world depends on empty brands
To animate production's cause:
Without false promises, the hands
Of workers turn to angry jaws

And bite the feeding hand of Smith:
The money's value's just a myth.



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