Mean Density of a Corporate Brain Ghazal

“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil
and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total
water volume.”
–Tony Hayward, CEO British Petroleum, on the
Gulf of Mexico oil spill


One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,

Shakespeare said —and not just in dreams if truth be told.

Devils on TV and on the radio —even in the street
ordinary demons walk among us —terrors to behold.

Just yesterday someone I know remarked that we may be indiscreet
and inconsiderate of the earth; saying: We may be bold.

We may have our wonton way with her without repercussion
even if we leave her desiccated —as God’s my witness, it’s foretold.

The earth’s ours to be consumed; to be sucked utterly to death.
We have the right, he said –being the prime plums in god’s fold.

So what if the earth bleeds into the sea? The sea’s huge enough
to handle whatever comes: run-off nitrogen, sludge, black gold.

As long as skulls are stuffed with want and hearts trussed in bottom lines
it’s just routine to deal in death and decimate the earth which rolls & rolls.

If we’re dumb as Gump, blind as Lear and demonic as a corporate
brain we’ll, sure as hell, smother and annihilate even our dreams
if truth be told.

by Jim Culleny, 5/23/10

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