Tuesday 18 October 2011

A Capitalist At Dinner by Claude Mckay


In honor of all the people who are currently occupying London’s Stock Exchange, Wall Street and other significant locations in Rome, Vancouver, Oslo , Sydney, Tokyo, Brussels, Amsterdam, Madrid, Athens, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Zurich etc. 

As part of the Occupy Movement/Protests I give you this poem by Jamaican poet Claude Mckay.

An ugly figure, heavy, overfed,
-Settles uneasily into a chair;
Nervously he mops his pimply pink bald head
Frowns at the fawning waiter standing near
The entire service tries its best to please
This overpampered piece of broken health
Who sits there thoughtlees, querulous, and obese
Wrapped in his sordid visions of vast wealth

Great God! if creatures like this money-fool
Who hold the service of mankind so cheap,
Over the people must forever rule,
Driving them at their will like helpless sheep-
Then let proud mothers cease from giving birth;
Let human beings perish from the earth.

This poem was written in 1919.

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