Usury

1.

Amos of Tekoa
The most ancient of the Hebrew prophets
Was a simple shepherd in the field

He saw the oppression and exploitation of the poor
And he raised his voice like one lost in the wilderness
Calling out for social justice:

Not that the high places of New York will be brought low
Not that the pampered ladies of Chicago
Will be slaughtered like the cows of Bashan

Not that the wealth of America will be redistributed
But that the wealthy deserve the wealth
It is their punishment

A wealthy man detests nothing more
Than the sight of the happy poor

And when he has come to old age
He deserves to spend a million dollars a month
To extend his sad life a few more hours

He and his family deserve the pain
Of the facial and bodily mutilations
Done by the plastic surgeons

He deserves to see his family splintered
Surrounding his deathbed like a pack of jackals
Growling and snapping at each other
In hopes gaining a little more inheritance

For this is the pain of wealth
The care of money
The deathly dreading of poverty
Truly they have received their reward

2.

And yet the prophet has not spoken of the government
Of its detestable inter-penetrations with the corporations
Their obscene relationships with the lawyers
Who are guilty of vile acts with lobbyists
Who are in bed with insurance companies
Who have illicit affairs with bankers
Who have spread their disease to the pharmaceuticals
Who hold the medical industry in bondage
While they sodomize the HMOs

Until it is clear that the whole thing is dirty
That our economic failure is a moral failure
And that every greedy man has a stinky finger