REFLECTIONS ON IGNOMINY

A freckled, slightly overweight Jewish boy

from Sea Gates, Brooklyn, crossed the Hudson,

and morphed, by dint of patronage and smarts,

into a Master of the Universe,

a digital Professor Moriarty,

a Bluebeard, Svengali, Dr No,

and, for a time, it seems, became the Master –

croesus, pander, spy, rapist, paedophile

Just when ‘Nothing To See Here’ had become

almost believable, many thousands

of virtual filing cabinets disgorge

evidence of the actual protocols

of conspiracy – not of a cultural,

ethnic, religious tribe but that

of rich men and rich men’s little helpers,

keeping their wealth safe at our expense.

Do only greedy, ruthless men become

mega rich, part of the one percent,

or do the filthy wealthy become

people without pity, their unbound

acquisitiveness demanding brief

rockets to the stratosphere, a town’s

water resources for their AI hubs,

and the despoliation of innocence,

the slaughtering of trust and of hope,

their arrogance broadcast in plain sight?

To be clever – and not even try to be good!

To have the means – and not be kind! Must power

always corrupt? Are we only: prey

or predator; Satan, Saviour, Scapegoat;

ignominy’s enablers?