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?
By David Selzer