H
e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s
b e r g
N
a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i
v e s E d i t i o n
ELIOT KATZ
Bail Out What?
As
the U.S.-built trojan-horse mortgage-backed
insecurities
crisis continues to hop aboard freight
elevators moving
continually downwards; as the Wall Street bull let
loose from its
iron base continues to rampage through the trickle-down
bloody back streets of overworked America; as a
discredited
treasury department of a disgraced presidency
attempts to tickle
nation's plastic-card wallets by yet one more
midnight
pour-oil-down-the-bank-chimney approach; as Congress shrugs
its confused shoulders and nods in sleepy assent, with
Democrats
making sure recruit enough Republican votes to
share blame
for a firecracker bill they all knew in advance was a dud; as
nervous
homeowners and shopkeepers wait by silent phones
for a sign
from heaven that manna-tasting loans and credit cards are
raining from the skies in infinite variety of
shapes and sizes;
as the four corners of the decade's deregulated pyramid
scheme prove no match for international
capital's globalized
wrecking ball; why should it surprise that a
chef's knife can't carve
edible food out of a stack of blowing
thousand-dollar bills?
With
all major commentators warning about the need to halt
the next Great Depression, where's the proposal for a new
New
Deal? Why not Dems voting for bills they are proud
to pass alone, and then watch Bush sign because embarrassed
there is no other rational or irrational
choice? Why not put world's
heaviest military budget on a strict low-carb diet? Why not new
olive-green bridge-building projects paying a
guaranteed living wage?
Why
not freeze foreclosures and send $10,000 checks to every
struggling renter and homeless family worried about
opening
their next medical bill? Why not rip all
medical bills and create
a single-payer health security system? Send every high school
graduate to college as long as they can learn to mapquest
their way there! Build the next generation of
pyramids with clear
publicly accountable front windows! There are so
many jobs waiting
for those who can help build a solar energy cell or write a
song
to heal a deeply troubled nation. Let's tickle the bottom of
the economy's feet and watch the electricity rise upward.
10/08
[Originally
published in NHS 2009, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs09/Eliot_Katz.htm.]