Bananas (A Poem for Victimized Billionaires)

(Part of a thread to share poems or poetry-adjacent writing, as discussed here.)

Note: First a semi-apology to those who follow my blog feed (as opposed to parachuting in now and then). I’m aware I haven’t posted much lately. That's largely because more diligent Substack people have been saying plenty of things I don’t need to echo. But it’s also due to my decision after the 2024 election to sit back, watch and try to understand how the MAGA Christian Right fits into the semi-coherent circus of the wider MAGA coalition. I take this to be a complicated moving target, not just a place to rehash common wisdom, as well as a place where I may have distinctive things to contribute. Although I’ve been hanging back for a while, I’ve begun to write down some thoughts, so stay tuned.   

Hamilton Nolan last week pointed out, in his comments about a proposed tax on California billionaires, that this tax “would have zero material impact on the lives of any person who would be required to pay it.” In fact, “a one-time tax of 5% would be less than the annual increase in size of any well-managed fortune.” Most of these oppressed billionaires “would be able to pay this tax and still end up richer than they were the year before.”

This reminded me of a poem I started a year ago, then set aside, about the crypto-currency bro who spent six million dollars to buy intellectual rights for the concept of duct-taping a banana a wall and calling this “conceptual art.”  For whatever the poem is worth, here it is: 

Bananas

What the hell is wrong

with this country? Someone is

so obscenely rich

and such an asshole

that he bought a banana

for six million bucks

just for the lulz, or

as a publicity stunt,

or possibly to 

promote the essence

of bitcoin (yeah he said that;

he got rich that way.)

This banana art

was fairly on point at first. 

What is the logic now?

I guess the dealers

swap out the happy yellow

fruit once in a while,

sometime before it’s

rotten, dripping, black, putrid.

Someone must eat both:

greenish black with flies

for some, yellow if you’re rich.

Ha Ha. Funny joke.

****

Fifty people have

more wealth than ninety

percent of the world.

They can buy islands,

senators, nations, like we

buy a loaf of bread.

But still they want more.

(I guess they fear enemies

and why would that be?)

Anyway they are

literally proud, competing—

to destroy the schools,

health care, and pensions

of billions of people—to

kick kids out of homes—

for a few tax breaks

and bragging rights, or maybe

imagined tickets

to ride up to Mars

after they kill the earth to pay

for the rocket ships. 

****

Without their tax breaks

they could still buy bananas

for a million each,

and still own islands,

senators, nations, like we

buy two bicycles,

and afterward still

have billions to build houses

for homeless people.

They could buy apples

for twenty-five thousand each

and brag: Look at me,

I gave some away

to kids with single parents

at the housewarmings!

They could give bitcoins

to kids and save the hassle

of building houses.

They could live on earth

and do things that feed our souls

but they’ve lost their souls.