Life Imitating Art

Yet though some banks were full, too many were now closed in a city
Effete and wrecked, worn out by the uncertainty of world wars.
Dear Columbia so long had been a hot, high-rolling gambler.
There were jealous protesters on the streets and fingering of knives
Always, but there is so much bomb-throwing and unpleasantness ‘fore
One’s backers become nervous and the gruff warblers at the table
Look for arms and their advantage, so though she was victorious.
The diplomats dick’ring peace at Turin to one thesis agreed:
This lady, e’er torn between professor and queen, would live within
Her means. Accounting for some variance in the balance of trade
Wrote reddening balance sheets on Houstonian eyes and drove mouths
To strange oscillations: Vitus’s Dance (?), non-verbal stutt’ring.
Around this time, I suspect you and yours slipped out in confusion
Of budgets and values and what the taxpayers could take these days."

Written c. 2003