Tattoo

Posted on July 15, 2015 in New Poems

(to the sound of Greek bagpipes)

Today, the Greek Government
executed by firing squad
1000 pensioners, along
with 2000 workers, as part
of a package of financial
reforms, to reassure
the markets and permit
the Troika to release one
more tranche of the bail-out.

How one feels for the victims
In all this, the bankers
criminalised, shorn
of bonuses, the markets
bearish, nervous as
kittens, the green back,
the pound, the tsunami-
floating yen, scurrying

between time-sealed
vaults and tax-havens,
exposed to the sniping
of credit default swaps
as Molotov cocktails
rain down relentlessly
from Fitch’s, Moody’s,
and S.& P.’s. Will
the friendly Troika
contrive fresh reforms?

Will our young friend,
the euro, be vaporised?
Growth is a must come
what may, be it 3000
health workers hung,
drawn and quartered,
4000 firemen burned
at the stake, even
the odd politician garrotted.