Robert Pinsky

From the River of News
September 13, 2012 Pinsky Robert

From the River of News

 

The President and his opponent both speaking in Ohio—

Both, says the River of News, about the economy.

The Egyptian high court has liquidated their parliament.

In the Iroquois language Ohio means a good river.

Releases, reports. Revenue streams analyzed.

 

Car industry statements defend the three-crew workday,

Though the three-crew flow is hard on workers’ households.

In Mozambique, agribusiness has expanded irrigation.

In Russian, the word “liquidate” is especially sinister.

In Entertainment, here are last week’s highest grosses.

 

Tongues. Speeches and statements. Poems, reports, parleys.

An Egyptian says, this is the smoothest of military coups.

“We’d be outraged,” he says, “if we weren’t so exhausted.”

“Economy” comes from “household” in ancient Greek.

Etymologies. Global ecologies. Exponents, logarhithms.

 

The saying is, “Money talks”  Our own high court has

Decreed that money, the great tributary, is speech itself.

In Mozambique, that massive diversion of the waters

Has done much harm to subsistence farmers, but Africa—

Africa can feed the world, says a corporate spokesman.

Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.