Leave the Worrying, Professionals

Jackie Sheeler

“Leave the worrying to professionals,
and live your lives.”

— Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City

leave the worrying, professionals
the wartalk, torn dreams and poverties of structure
the evidence of failure found in Staten Island flames
and eyeless old men who sleep each night on cardboard
plucking maggots from their shins like coin

(coin: a mushroom thing that grows in shaken paper cups)
(coin: a commonplace that billionaires will never need to touch)

leave hands stretched out on street corners and live unworried lives
from firehouse to penthouse, Burger King to Balthazar
leave the sideshow holes at Zero and live out your spared lives
from boardroom to classroom, Bed-Stuy to Stuytown
leave orange alerts to invisible experts, just live usual lives
from suburb to shelter, precinct to prison

Oh Bloomie Bloomie Bloomie Bloom Bloomberg
how you've withered on your well-heeled vine
in your city of handlers & helicopters
in your city that is not mine