Bank Holiday
July 6, 2009
Easter has been cancelled,
now a bank holiday weekend.
There’s enough bad news.
No need to nail down the living.
No need to taunt the dead
with resurrection.
Underwood is no banker
but he takes time out
from everyday collapse.
He forks corn from a can.
The mob’s rage, he believes,
raised the crucified
three days later,
the resurrection required
a hammering fury.
The banks follow suit,
market exclusive threats
to likely customers,
who queue round the clock
for negative equity.
The banks’ hate mail
becomes a status symbol.
People offer their mouths
as personalised ATMs.
Underwood kicks a lamppost.
The mob has been cancelled.
His foot hurts.
Still, he must resist.
Categories: Economy
Rob Mackenzie
qarrtsiluni 
Very clipped and precise images, Rob. Underwood is the ‘false’ name that Frodo Baggins gives when he stays at The Prancing Pony in LOTR. The names that Tolkien used can sometimes be thought of as cyphers for archetypes we encounter in life – that’s just my take :)
Nice poem and reading, Rob. Good to see your work here at qarrtsiluni.
Rachel
The voice in both this poem & *The New Poetry* are so precise & dead-on clear. & then, also, so wonderfully read. A real pleasure, thanks.
Caroline