Opportunistic
(in homage to Ozymandias by Shelley)
I met a president from a defunct bank
Who cried: “Two smashed and roofless blocks of shops
Stand in the suburbs. Near them old and dank,
Half built, a parking structure squats, its frame
and crumbling top and sides of cold concrete
tell that its builder ill these projects read
which yet survive, slumped on their lifeless heels,
The fraud that blocked them and the funds that fled.
And on a signboard these boasts appear:
“Our plan is Opportunistic, Deal of Deals:
Look at our rates, big business, and compare!”
No life inside remains. Round the debris
of these enormous shacks, listless and unaware,
Phantom shopping queues stretch to the sea.
