Summer Ale

Eugene Schlanger, the Wall Street Poet, has passed along his latest poem Summer Ale which he released for Labor Day 2008.

Summer Ale (Hanover Square, July 2008)

by Eugene Schlanger, the author of September 11 Wall Street Sonnets (Paris 2006)

Fast Sam Adams laughter
Reverberates through Harry’s
At the government’s insistence
That it can trace and displace rumors
Or measure credit derivatives.
Have the business schools produced
The most morbid and inept
Cheerless executives
In this short crisis?

Tourists continue to perspire
Along the perimeter
Of Ground Zero.
Incapable or unable,
They do not see or hear
The ghosts suspended
Above Tobin Plaza,
The Court of International Trade,
Always about to splatter
On rookies, chiefs and a priest
Staring up in disbelief.

Instructed to shop
By the first MBA president,
Those who are not New Yorkers
Herd towards Century 21
And emerge moist and ravenous.

Shamans once dispatched warriors
To the Underworld
To free the maimed and the dead
Of their dying civilizations.
We lease.

After another draft,
Some casual remarks and a casual caress,
My colleague from Deutsche Bank
Finally laughs.
At last, the mayhem—
Of falling towers, broken levees and
Continuous crimes committed by
The drug-addled underclass—
Gives way to Johan Santana’s
First complete game at Shea.

Short the ultra-short ETFs and
Watch millions reappear intraday.
Magic. Levity.
Fueling another round
In this swell town.

© Copyright Eugene Schlanger, 2008 - All Rights Reserved - Tous droits réservés