Greed
There is a fitful grasping in the world,
a body’s massive hand
gathering by the train- and truckload.
There is a howl for more
and yet more, a Grand Canyon
of want being carved in the landscape.
A man swims a smooth backstroke
through a pool of Franklins, euros,
riyals, stocks and bonds in waves
rippling like fanned bills he swallows
with deferred interest and fresh oysters.
There is an ever-expanding waistband,
a craving for infinite zeroes, a finger-
snap that overturns governments,
and at the end of each trading day
another Senator to be mounted
above the great fireplace where
everything, every body, is cordwood.
There is a gilded razor, a platinum toilet,
an unsated Jaguar stalking
a Lamborghini, a fanged loophole
that widens as it overflows into
a pit there’s no crawling out of.