OCCUPATION

OCCUPATION

There are sparrows occupying Wall Street,
as we speak, their quavering notes, grown
angry and provoked, scream their mantra:
“Revolt!” In a sparrow’s time, will this last? 

A curtain of gold leaves have not yet fallen
off their trembling branches, quite like
the price of gold shooting through Dow Jones
roofs; behind them, a hawk flexes its wings. 

Will this march through the wind tunnels
of Manhattan rouse vultures perched on bank
ledges to swoop down on twittering sparrows,
race the predator to wads of foreclosure notes? 

The CEO of Chase cackles in lieu of a fiddle,
watching the fire below behind a barricade
of gold bullions stacked against a molten door,
no match, indeed, for the twittering sparrows. 

 

—Albert B. Casuga
10-12-11

Prompt: White-throated sparrows in the meadow—their quavery notes. Behind the curtain of gold leaves, a split-second glimpse of a hawk’s wing.---Dave Bonta, The Morning Porch, 10-12-11