Scanning the News at 6:00 a.m. by Ruth D. Handel

No comity in Iraq.
The Taliban’s back. Afghani
women burn.

In India and Pakistan once more the lesson’s learned.
Those to whom evil is done do evil in return.

***

Muni’s shudder
Long term care’s in the gutter
Billionaires mutter they won’t pay more
Health care’s at risk
Social security’s on the list
Unemployment climbing higher than before

Killing mortgage credits fattens personal debits.
Intel’s up, Cisco’s down. Tech is hot, or maybe not.

China looms. South Asia rises.
Economists predict there’ll be surprises.

Every statistic is probabilistic. That’s a rule I learned in school

Hedge
fund
clients
get an edge
while the rest of us
teeter and totter on the ledge
and in the street the meek, unfranchised, forebear to riot.

Laws sold. Bought. Not what we were taught

The public claws and hisses in sinister confusion.
Leaders in owlish glasses hoot oracular delusion.

The owl and the pussycat
are at sea
in a mortgaged greenbacked boat
their craft’s small and creaky
the honey is treacley
and they’re singing of treasury notes.

***
Business page away away
Your tales are dark and gloomy
for better cheer I turn to the
Tipsy Diaries of Frank Bruni.

Pour cognac in the coffee, ho
sprinkle caviar on the toast
although you can’t afford it
your breakfast costs the most.

I grow cold. I grow cold. Where’s the butter for my rolls.

Author bio:

Ruth D. Handel has been published in several journals, anthologies, and online. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook, Reading the White Spaces, in May 2009. Handel teaches poetry workshops to community groups and psychiatric patients. She also managse a volunteer organization, the Poetry Caravan, that brings poetry to the community through readings and workshops in prison, hospitals, shelters, senior centers.