trickle down theory.

Let's break it down, word by word:

TRICKLE
i think of pissing
or a crack in the window
that lets rain in
or the pots and pans
when i was a kid
placed in the living room
to catch the drip drip drip
of our leaky ceiling.

trickle is what yr nose does
when someone punches it,
or what your 'nads emit if
you catch syphilis. any way
you slice it it's not a good
metaphor for a system of
economics or social justice

DOWN
down and out
down in the mouth
down on your luck
down for the count
been down so long
it looks like up to me
(but that's just my
 way of coping--it doesn't
 fix anything)
Dow Jones is down
low down
beat down
take down
put down
let down
come down
break down

but it's all not bad--
you can be down by law,
get down on it, or
down another drink.
but those things only
let you forget it's
time for a showdown

THEORY
i've got a theory about "theory"

it's that theory is just a dream
someone has for the way
they want the world to be.
so they explain and convince
until enough people believe it
to make it real. trickle down
theory can only work
when those at the bottom
accept it as what they deserve
from those highborn who deceive.

but i question the equation
that says things get better
when the rich get richer.
it's the same logic that says
more cops make us safer,
more prisons make us freer,
and bombs and guns are the only way
to secure a lasting peace.

feb 5 2003
composed orally
pulling weeds in
a billionaire banker's
bird sanctuary, east
side of seattle...

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