You will Buy your Life as a series of
Experiences to which you will Belong²
The Good person understands Rightness
Whereas the Petty person understands Profit³
The contrast of Affluence & Wretchedness is
Like Dead & Living Bodies Chained together⁴
The Poor don’t notice ‘cause they’re too Poor –
And the Rich don’t notice ‘cause they’re too Rich⁵
All 4,600 Million Years of Evolution: it’s Packed,
Sealed, Tagged, Valued, and Available on the shelf⁶
You say that Only Money counts – then I will bring
You Money, but don’t ask for the beauty of a Rose,
The colors of Dawn-Morning, nor a Flaming Love⁷
There is only One Holistic system of systems,
One Vast & Immane, Interwoven, Interacting,
Multinational Dominion of Dollars: Currency
Determines the totality of All Human Life⁸
You ignore the coming Doom of Gold and
You’re glad in this Bright Metal Season⁹
But Poets get Directlier at the Soul
Than any of your Œconomists¹⁰
¹ Emily Dickinson, The Hallowing of Pain
² Rae Armantrout, Exit Row
³ Confucius tr. Edward Slingerland, Analects 4.16
⁴ Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice
⁵ Tadeusz Rózewicz tr. Maguire & Krynski, What Happens
⁶ Arundhati Roy, Come September
⁷ Langston Hughes, A Wooing
⁸ Paddy Chayefsky, Network
⁹ Sylvia Plath, Gold Mouths Cry
¹⁰ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh