Jeremaiad on the Economic Crisis

Look and see the desolation of many.
The rich are cast down, the poor starve,
Houses are emptied and robbed,
Whole legions of job holders are without pay,
Blighted cities devoid of people are an astonishment,
And to pass them by is to hear only a hissing.

How have we come to this? By greed and grabbing.
Each with his family took when they saw the others taking,
Until there was no more to take, no new pockets to pick,
And then the frauds began, until lost souls could not know
Their way back because they could not know they were lost.

We shall be owned by foreigners, slaves to government,
Unto the seventh generation. Our pride will be cast down.
With the pleasure of the weak we shall see
The mighty imprisoned, but it will not put food on our plates.

The captains of industry have gone, but not down with their ships.
They shall be gathered up and drowned like kittens,
But whole cities will drown with them, and they shall moan
As a woman in her birth throes, but there will be no drugs
To relieve the racking pains. Arson, murder, theft shall be
The rule of the days, until there is not even a man worth killing
Or property worth stealing, and then, out of the exhaust fumes,
Out of the death breaths and rattles, shall come a new world.

May we recreate it with justice and mercy and the sharing of bread.