I met a realtor from a new land
Who said: Two thousand vast and windowless lumps of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visa card lies, whose front
And wrinkled strip sneers of cold payment demand
Tell that its sucker well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless bills,
That hand that shopped them and the bank that fed.
And on the windscreen those words appear:
“my name is Ozzy Man me arse, kingpin of booms:
Look at my books, ye Investors, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundary wall-less and bare,
The lone already levelled sands stretch far away.
Not bad at all, that! Loved it to Bysshe!
ReplyDeleteFar better than the March effort from Simon Jenkins in The Grauniad:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/20/dubai-decline-middle-east?showallcomments=true
Which I believe was prompted by this from late February:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/dubais-darkening-sky-where-the-crane-gods-are-eerily-still-20090225-8hzd.html?page=-1
Thank heavens my English Literature A-Level included Milton's Paradise Lost, as well as King Lear!
(I believe Dubai will recover and am heartily puzzled by all the "Dubai Doubters".)
Mr Bumfrey may I remind you that you are now talking out of your shiny bum?
ReplyDeleteRECOVER!
ReplyDeleteThen make a even better bubble! The biggest in the world which will make the biggest bang since the big bang.
Its the advice of these experts that got the world into this tight spot.
Lord save us from the experts!
@ RNB
ReplyDeleteYour words are music to ears!
Now one has a rough idea how the poor souls felt listening to the music as the titanic sank into the cold atlantic!
-FR
Thanks alex, rupert
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 30 March, 2009 23:29
ReplyDeleteYou may recall recent story about a larger proportion of Brit's succumbing than other nationalities, so "after you Anonymous".
Elgar would be my preference.
Did Paradise and Lear fly overhead?
ABUDHABI is the future
ReplyDelete