The Market Is a Merciless Beast

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Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Video Music:
Concerto for Organ and Orchestra
Op7 no1 mvt2.
By George Frideric Handel.
Performed by
The Advent Chamber Orchestra
at the Free Music Archive
under an Attribution-
Share Alike

license.

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Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

The market is a merciless beast,
Bloodstained in tooth and claw,
A superbly crafted predator
Honed well by nature's law.

Tame it and you'll get a dog -
Friendly, useful, smart,
Overbred imperfectly,
The flawed result of art.

Which do you choose? The perfect beast
To maximize return?
To set unbiased by the heart
What people pay and earn?

Or the dog, who would prefer
To find some way to please,
And with a trick or two, the pain
Of life's worst hardships ease?

Oh, yes, the market undisturbed
Works most efficiently.
But do you choose the wilderness
And nature's cruelty?

Or do you choose the park, where nature,
Guided by the will,
As tame as we, is modified
To spare the weak and ill?

Which is your reflection?
The wild or the tame?
Your answer is a mirror,
Its heart and yours the same.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Video Music: Concerto for Organ and Orchestra Op7 no1 mvt2.
By George Frideric Handel. Performed by The Advent Chamber Orchestra
at the Free Music Archive under an Attribution-Share Alike license.



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