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poetry After All, the Market Runs on Greed

After all, the New Jersey-based poet Nicholas Gordon writes, Washington and Wall Street move up and down on one principle--why be surprised? what did you expect?—Greed!

After All, the Market Runs on Greed

By Nicholas Gordon

After all, the market runs on greed,
The sunlight of this social ecosphere,
Self-adjusting as supply and need
Set prices to the tune of hope and fear.
The state can intervene, of course, but then
The Capitol might well outgreed the Street,
Playing games with games beyond its ken,
Positioned where the votes and money meet.
What to do? We've tried Utopia,
A nightmare far, far worse than any dream,
Strangling the source of cornucopia,
Sacrificing millions to a scheme.

We are born into a world of sin,
Which if we just accept, we die within.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

Nicholas Gordon is retired as a professor of English after more than thirty years of teaching at New Jersey City University. He holds a B.A. in English from Queens College of the City University of New York and an M.A. and Ph. D. in English and American Literature from Stanford University. His poetry, fiction, and biographical writing appears at his popular Web site, Poems for Free, at https://www.poemsforfree.com.

 

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